Lothar HelmLothar Helm was born in Gernsbach (Germany) in 1952. He studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) and obtained his diploma degree in 1977. He remained in Karlsruhe for his Ph.D. research with Prof. H. G. Hertz and received his degree in physical chemistry in 1980. In 1980 he joined the laboratories of Prof. André Merbach at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. From 1983 to 2001 he was maître denseignement et de recherche at the Faculty of Science of the University of Lausanne. In 2001 he moved, together with the whole chemistry department, from the University of Lausanne to the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Since 2006 he is adjunct professor at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at EPFL and director of the NMR services of the institute.
From 2007 to 2011 he was director of the "Conférence du corps Enseignant" at EPFL. Since 2011 he is member of the School Assembly of EPFL (AE).
MAIN RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Physico-chemical studies of contrast agents for medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Study of reactivity and reaction mechanisms in coordination chemistry by variable temperature and pressure nuclear magnetic resonance
Computer simulation of solvent dynamics on cations and metal complexes in solution
Professional course
Paul Joseph DysonPaul Dyson joined the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at the EPFL in 2002 where he heads the Laboratory of Organometallic and Medicinal Chemistry and between 2008 and 2016 chaired the Institute. He has won several prizes including the Werner Prize of the Swiss Chemical Society in 2004, the Award for Outstanding Achievements in Bioorganometallic Chemistry in 2010, the Centennial Luigi Sacconi Medal of the Italian Chemical Society in 2011, the Bioinorganic Chemistry Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2015, the European Sustainable Chemistry Award of the European Chemical Society in 2018 and the Green Chemistry Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2020. He is also a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and has an H-index >110 (web of science and google scholar). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2010, a Fellow of the European Academy of Science in 2019 and a life-long fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020. Over the years he has held visiting professorships at the University of Bourgogne, University of Pierre et Marie Curie, University of Vienna, University of Rome Tor Vergara, Chimie Paristech and Shangai Jiao Tong University.Since 2016 he has been Member of the Council of the Division of Mathematics, Natural and Engineering Sciences at the Swiss National Science Foundation.Between 2016-2021 he has been Member of the Council of the Division of Mathematics, Natural and Engineering Sciences at the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2021 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Basic Sciences.
Kay SeverinKay Severin was born in Germany in 1967. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1995 with a thesis in the group of Prof. W. Beck, University of Munich. Subsequently, he joined the group of Prof. M. R. Ghadiri as a postdoctoral fellow. In 1997, he started independent research projects ("Habilitation") at the Department of Chemistry, University of Munich. In 2001, he became assistant professor at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). Since 2009, he is full professor at the same institute.
Awards: Bayerischer Habilitations Förderpreis (1997), ADUC award of the year (2001), Heinz Maier-Leibnitz award of the DFG (2001), award of the Karl-Ziegler foundation (2001), Arnold Sommerfeld award of the Bavarian Academy of Science (2001), Werner Prize of The Swiss Chemical Society (2003), Otto Roelen Medal of the DECHEMA (2005), award for chemistry of the Academy of Sciences, Göttingen (2007), Dalton Transactions European Lectureship (2008).
André MerbachAndré Merbach was born in Lausanne in 1940. He studied at the Polytechnical School of the University of Lausanne (Pelet and A3E2PL Awards), where he obtained in 1962 his degree in Chemical Engineering with a diploma research work in organic chemistry. In 1964, the University of Lausanne awarded him a PhD for his research on quaternary solubility systems with formation of mixed crystals. He spent then a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied the ionisation of strong electrolytes by NMR.
Upon his return in 1965 to the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Lausanne, he was asked to create a research and teaching program in Coordination Chemistry. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 1971.
In 1973, the Swiss Chemical Society awarded him the Werner Prize and Medal for his research on the structure, the stability and the dynamics of metal halogen adducts by NMR and, the same year, was nominated Professor of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry.
He was a member of the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research in the division of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Engineering from 1985 until 1996. He represents Switzerland on the COST Chemistry Technical Committee (European Co-operation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research: 35 countries and 1000 research groups in chemistry) and has chaired this Committee from 1998 to 2000. He was the Chairman of the Management Committee of the COST Action D6 on Chemical Processes and Reactions under Extreme or Non-Classic Conditions (1992-1997).
He has organised the XXIXth International Conference in Coordination Chemistry (ICCC) in Lausanne in 1992. He has been awarded an honoris causa doctorate from the Lajos Kossuth University of Debrecen (Hungary) in 1993 for his work on elucidating reaction mechanisms in coordination chemistry utilising high pressure NMR. He has been called at the presidency of the Swiss Chemical Society (2001-2004). The University of Geneva awarded him an honoris causa doctorate in 2003.
César PulgarinProf. C. Pulgarin is Chemist from Lausanne University, Master in environmental chemistry from Geneva University, Ph D in synthesis bio-inspired of natural substances from Neuchâtel University. During his education he carried out several industrial trainings.
Since March 1989, he has been working at the EPFL where he is leader of the Advanced Oxidation Processes Group (GPAO) active in the development chemical, photochemical, electrochemical, ultrasonic processes, their coupling between them and with biological systems to degrade chemical and microbiological pollutants in water and air. He has an H index of 40 and he is the world most cited author in 1) TiO2 photo-assisted bacterial inactivation in water and 2) Coupling of photochemical and biological processes for pollutant degradation. He has been involved in ten African, South American and European international research projects. He has been Swiss representative in COST program 540.
Jean-Claude BünzliJean-Claude Bünzli was born in 1944. He earned a degree in chemical engineering in 1968 and a PhD in 1971 (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne) for his work on the kinetic behaviour of Nb and Ta pentachloride adducts. He spent two years at the University of British Columbia as a teaching postdoctoral fellow (photoelectron spectroscopy) and one year at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (physical organic chemistry).
Positions
He was appointed assistant-professor at the University of Lausanne in 1974 and started a research program on the spectrochemical properties of f-elements. He was promoted as a full professor of inorganic and analytical chemistry in 1980. He transferred to EPFL in 2001 where he directed the Laboratory of Lanthanide Supramolecular Chemistry until 2010.
From 2009 to 2013, he was World Class University Professor at Korea University (South Korea) helping developing a new research center for photovoltaics. In 20154-2015 he acted as visiting professor at FJIRSM (Fuzhou, Fujian), a laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
He presently holds the Dr Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Hong Kong Baptist University (3 months/year) and a position as Distinguished Scholar at University of Technology, Sydney (NSW, Australia, 1 month/year).
Administrative and reviewer duties
He acted as the elected Dean of the Faculty of Sciences (1990-1991) and as one of the elected Vice-Rectors of the University (1991-1995), in charge of students' affairs and of research programs in the field of biomedical sciences. He held a position of invited professor at the Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg in 1996 and at the Science University of Tokyo in 1998. In 1989, he founded the European Rare Earths and Actinide Society which coordinate international conferences in the field (cf. http://ereswww.epfl.ch).
He served as a World Bank Project Specialist within the framework of the Chinese Provincial Universities Development Project (Northwest China, 1989) and as a member of a Panel in charge of evaluating chemical research at Norwegian universities (1997). In 2001, he was hired as "Peer leader" for the evaluation of the Swiss universities of applied sciences. In 2005, he acted as a member of the "Physical Inorganic Panel" of the Science Foundation of Ireland and in 2006 he was nominated to the "Chemistry Panel" of the same foundation.
He is a member of the Editorial Board of Spectroscopy Letters, associate editor-in-chief of the Journal of Rare Earths, and senior editor of the Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths (54 volumes published to date).
Teaching
Regarding teaching, he has directed the joint project of the universities of Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Fribourg "General chemistry for students enrolled in a life sciences curriculum", within the frame of the "Swiss virtual campus", a program sponsored by the Conference of Swiss universities and the Swiss federal office for science and education (2000-2004). Web site: http://chimge@epfl.ch
Research
His research is centered on lanthanide luminescent molecular and supramolecular edifices, with main applications in biology & medicine. He is the author or the co-author of 350 research papers, 260 contributed communications and has presented 285 invited conferences, seminars, and courses. He has collected >22800 citations (h-index 72). Lukas KühnLukas Kühn graduated in biochemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. He received his PhD in 1979 for a thesis with Jean-Pierre Kraehenbuhl at the University of Lausanne. After postdoctoral work in Lausanne and with Frank Ruddle at Yale University, USA, he became group leader at ISREC in 1984, was promoted senior scientist in 1988 and EPFL Adjunct Professor (professeur titulaire) in June 2008.
