René MonotD'origine vaudoise, René Monot est né à Lausanne le 10 août 1943; c'est dans cette ville qu'il effectue ses études secondaires. Il suit les cours de la section de physique de l'Ecole polytechnique de l'Université de Lausanne, où il obtient son diplôme en 1966. Il est ensuite assistant, puis premier assistant du prof. Jean-Pierre Borel sous la direction duquel il réalise une thèse de doctorat sur les propriétés magnétiques des petites particules d'argent de quelques nanomètres de diamètre. Après sa thèse, de 1975 à 1978, il est engagé à l'Université de Californie, à Berkeley (Etats-Unis) pour y poursuivre, dans le laboratoire du prof. W.D. Knight, une recherche sur le magnétisme des amas d'atomes.
Depuis son retour en Suisse, il travaille à l'Institut de physique expérimentale où il a la fonction d'adjoint scientifique dès 1981. Il est nommé professeur titulaire en 1985.
Il enseigne aux étudiants de la section électricité, l'introduction à la mécanique quantique et il est chargé du cours de physique des surfaces pour le 2e et 3e cycle. Ses projets de recherche portent sur la physique des amas d'atomes métalliques, des interactions molécules-surfaces et des stades initiaux de la croissance épitaxiale.
Xile HuXile Hu was born in 1978 in Putian, southeastern China. He entered the Peking University in Beijing in 1996. Besides learning too little chemistry, his biggest regret in the college was not able to correct his southern accent in Mandarin. After graduated from PKU, he went to the United States and began his doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego. In December 2004, he finished with a Ph.D. in chemistry and some fond memories of the beautiful city of San Diego. He then moved to the Los Angeles area and become a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology. There he enjoyed numerous stimulating scientific (and other) discussions with friends and colleagues. He also made plenty of friends outside the campus and was a frequent in many local Chinese restaurants. In 2007, after two pleasant visits to Switzerland, he decided to move across the continent one more time and join the faculty of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He now directs the Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis and is interested in developing chemistry for synthesis, energy and sustainability.
Marcel DrabbelsDr. Marcel Drabbels studied experimental physics at the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and in 1993 obtained his Ph.D. at that same university. He then moved to the University of California at Santa Barbara where he studied the dynamics of highly vibrationally excited molecules and developed a new detection technique to investigate the photodissociation of molecules. When he returned to the Netherlands in 1996 he joined the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam where he worked on the development of new types of infrared imaging and streak cameras. In 1997 Dr. Drabbels was awarded a fellowship of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and he moved to the Free University of Amsterdam where he studied the collision dynamics of molecules and initiated photodissociation experiments using ultrafast lasers. In October 1998 he was appointed as senior scientist at the EPFL where he studies the spectroscopy and dynamics of nanoscale systems. In March 2021 he was promoted to titular professor.
Jean-Philippe BrantutI did my PhD at the Institut d'Optique under the direction of Philippe Bouyer and Alain Aspect, before moving to ETHZ in the group of Tilman Esslinger, first as a post-doc then as a senior scientist. There I developed in particular the method allowing for a quantum simulation of nano-electronic devices with ultracold quantum gases.Since september 2016, I hold the Fondation Sandoz chair in physics of quantum gases at EPFL. There, my group has developed the first cold atoms machine combining Fermi gases with cavity-quantum electrodynamics. We use it to explore new ways of measuring and manipulating quantum matter.
