Luc ThévenazLuc Thévenaz received in 1982 the M.Sc. degree in astrophysics from the Observatory of Geneva, Switzerland, and in 1988 the Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He developed at this moment his field of expertise, i.e. fibre optics. In 1988 he joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) where he currently leads a research group involved in photonics, namely fibre optics and optical sensing. Research topics include Brillouin-scattering fibre sensors, nonlinear fibre optics, slow & fast light and laser spectroscopy in gases. His main achievements are: - the invention of a novel configuration for distributed Brillouin fibre sensing based on a single laser source, resulting in a high intrinsic stability making for the first time field measurements possible, - the development of a photoacoustic gas trace sensor using a near infra-red semiconductor laser, detecting a gas concentration at the ppb level, - the first experimental demonstration of optically-controlled slow & fast light in optical fibres, realized at ambient temperature and operating at any wavelength since based on stimulated Brillouin scattering. The first negative group velocity of light was also realized in optical fibres using this approach. In 1991, he visited the PUC University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where he worked on the generation of picosecond pulses in semiconductor lasers. In 1991-1992 he stayed at Stanford University, USA, where he participated in the development of a Brillouin laser gyroscope. He joined in 1998 the company Orbisphere Laboratories SA in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as Expert Scientist to develop gas trace sensors based on photoacoustic laser spectroscopy. In 1998 and 1999 he visited the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejon, South Korea, where he worked on fibre laser current sensors. In 2000 he co-founded the spin-off company Omnisens that is developing and commercializing advanced photonic instrumentation. In 2007 he visited Tel Aviv University where he studied the all-optical control of polarization in optical fibres. During winter 2010 he stayed at the University of Sydney where he studied applications of stimulated Brillouin scattering in chalcogenide waveguides. In 2014 he stayed at the Polytechnic University of Valencia where he worked on microwave applications of stimulated Brillouin scattering. He was member of the Consortium in the FP7 European Project GOSPEL "Governing the speed of light", was Chairman of the European COST Action 299 "FIDES: Optical Fibres for New Challenges Facing the Information Society" and is author or co-author of some 480 publications and 12 patents. He is now Coordinator of the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks FINESSE (FIbre NErve Systems for Sensing). He is co-Executive Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Nature Light: Science & Applications" and is Member of the Editorial Board (Associate Editor) for the journal "APL Photonics" & "Laser & Photonics Reviews". He is also Fellow of both the IEEE and the Optical Society (OSA).
Maryam KamgarpourMaryam Kamgarpour holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Applied Science from University of Waterloo, Canada. Her research is on safe decision-making and control under uncertainty, game theory and mechanism design, mixed integer and stochastic optimization and control. Her theoretical research is motivated by control challenges arising in intelligent transportation networks, robotics, power grid systems and healthcare. She is the recipient of NASA High Potential Individual Award, NASA Excellence in Publication Award, and the European Union (ERC) Starting Grant.
Lyesse LalouiDirector, EPFL Soil Mechanics LaboratoryDirector, EPFL Civil Engineering SectionEditor in Chief, ElsevierMember of the Swiss Academy of Engineering SciencesFounding Partner, Geoeg & MeduSoilActive in academic research in the following institutions: Lausanne, EPFL, Durham, Duke University, Nanjing, Hohai UniversityProfessor Lyesse Laloui teaches at EPFL, where he directs the Soil Mechanics Laboratory as well as the Civil Engineering Section. He is a founding partner of the international engineering company Geoeg, and the start-up MeduSoil. In addition, he is an adjunct professor at Duke University, USA and an advisory professor at Hohai University, China as well as honorary director of the International Joint Research Center for Energy Geotechnics in China.He is the recipient of an Advance ERC grant for his BIO-mediated GEO-material Strengthening project. Editor in Chief of the Elsevier Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment journal, he is a leading scientist in the field of geomechanics and geo-energy. He has written and edited 13 books and published over 320 peer reviewed papers; his work is cited more than 6000 times with an h-index of 39 (Scopus). Two of his papers are among the top 1% in the academic field of Engineering. He has given keynote and invited lectures at more than 40 leading international conferences. He has received several international awards (IACMAG, RM Quigley, Roberval) and delivered honorary lectures (Vardoulakis, Minnesota; G.A. Leonards, Purdue; Kersten, Minnesota). He recently acted as the Chair of the international evaluation panel of Civil and Geological Engineering R&D Units of Portugal.Nov. 2019 For further information visit www.epfl.ch/labs/lms/ ; geoeg.net ; medusoil.com Claude PetitpierreClaude Petitpierre has received his diploma of Electrical Engineer in 1972 from EPFL. He spent the next 5 years in the industry, where he participated in the development of realtime cement plant control. He went back to EPFL, obtained the title of Doctor in 1984 and then spent one year (1985-1986) at the AT&T Bell Labs in Holmdel. He was appointed professor in 1987.
He is interested in the theories and techniques that can support the development of complete and reliable software products and in the formal modeling and analysis theories. The work pursued in his laboratory led to the development of a parsimonious superset of Java, supporting concurrency with a concept close to the one provided by formal languages such as CCS or CSP. He is currently devising a development environment that supports the creation of J2EE application in the frame of software engineering.
Claude Petitpierre is also interested in computer aided teaching. He has developed a computer aided programming course that has been used by first year students.
André-Gilles DumontAndré-Gilles Dumont est né en 1951 à la Brévine (NE). Il obtient en 1976 le diplôme d'ingénieur civil de l'EPFL.
Jusqu'en 1979, il est collaborateur d'un bureau d'ingénieurs et dirige la construction de divers bâtiments. Il entre ensuite au Laboratoire des voies de circulation (LAVOC) où il va développer une méthodologie d'essais en vraie grandeur des superstructures routières. Cette activité sera poursuivie au niveau international au sein de deux groupes d'experts scientifiques de l'OCDE.
Parallèlement au développement du LAVOC et à l'exécution de nombreux mandats pour des tiers, il est l'auteur de plusieurs recherches dans le domaine des matériaux granulaires et des bitumineux modifiés par des polymères.
En Suisse, il assume dès 1985 la présidence de la commission Technologie des matériaux de l'Union des professionnels suisses de la route puis, dès 1990, celle de la commission de coordination Exécution et entretien.
Depuis 1991, il est professeur et dirige le LAVOC. Il enseigne aux étudiants du génie civil et du génie rural, d'une part le tracé des voies de circulation et, d'autre part la construction et l'entretien des superstructures routières. Il mène également des recherches dans le domaine des propriétés des matériaux hydrocarbonés et de la modélisation des chaussées, comme dans celui de l'utilisation de la CAO pour l'élaboration des projets routiers et la prise en compte des facteurs environnementaux.
