Nava SetterNava Setter completed MSc in Civil Engineering in the Technion (Israel) and PhD in Solid State Science in Penn. State University (USA) (1980). After post-doctoral work at the Universities of Oxford (UK) and Geneva (Switzerland), she joined an R&D institute in Haifa (Israel) where she became the head of the Electronic Ceramics Lab (1988). She began her affiliation with EPFL in 1989 as the Director of the Ceramics Laboratory, becoming Full Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in 1992. She had been Head of the Materials Department in the past and more recently has served as the Director of the Doctoral School for Materials.
Research at the Ceramics Laboratory, which Nava Setter directs, concerns the science and technology of functional ceramics focusing on piezoelectric and related materials: ferroelectrics, dielectrics, pyroelectrics and also ferromagnetics. The work includes fundamental and applied research and covers the various scales from the atoms to the final devices. Emphasis is given to micro- and nano-fabrication technology with ceramics and coupled theoretical and experimental studies of the functioning of ferroelectrics.
Her own research interests include ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics: in particular the effects of interfaces, finite-size and domain-wall phenomena, as well as structure-property relations and the pursuit of new applications. The leading thread in her work over the years has been the demonstration of how basic or fundamental concepts in materials - particularly ferroelectrics - can be utilized in a new way and/or in new types of devices. She has published over 450 scientific and technical papers.
Nava Setter is a Fellow of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the World Academy of Ceramics. Among the awards she received are the Swiss-Korea Research Award, the ISIF outstanding achievement award, and the Ferroelectrics-IEEE recognition award. In 2010 her research was recognized by the European Union by the award of an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant. Recently she received the IEEE-UFFC Achievement Award (2011),the W.R. Buessem Award(2011), the Robert S. Sosman Award Lecture (American Ceramics Society) (2013), and the American Vacuum Society Recognition for Excellence in Leadership (2013).
Marco Cantoni1982-1988, Diploma course in Experimental Physics (certificate, 28.10.88)ETHZ Faculty IX MATHEMATICS and PHYSICS, Diploma Thesis: "Abweichungen von der ikosaedrischen Symmetrie in Al-Cu-Li Quasikristallen", Advisor: Prof. H.-U. Nissen 1989-1993, Ph.D. in Experimental Physics (certificate, 23.8.94) ETHZ Physics Department, Laboratory of Solid State Physics, Ph. D. Thesis No. 10421, Title: "Elektronenmikroskopische Untersuchung der Realkristallstruktur epitaktischer Schichten von Supraleitern des Typs SEBa2Cu3O7-x auf (100)-SrTiO3" Advisors: Prof. H.R. Ott, Prof. H. U. Nissen. 1994-1996,ETH Zürich,Material Science Department, Non-Metallic Materials, Prof. L. Gauckler: Microstructure characterisation of high-tech ceramic materials by means of SEM, TEM and atomic force microscopy: superconductor thick films (Bi-2212 on Ag) and solid oxide fuel cells (ZrO2, CeO2). 1996-1998, National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials NIRIM, Japan Group for Special Research, Prof. S. Horiuchi: TEM of Bi-2223/Ag Tapes, Application of Imaging Plates (IP) in High Voltage TEM, Cryo-Lorentz-TEM of Superconducting Materials (Observation of Flux-Lines) 1998-2000, Ecole polytechnique fédéral de Lausanne, EPFL-CIME Centre interdépartemental de microscopie électronique CIME, Prof. P.A. Buffat: Projet 125, PPO II (programme prioritaire optique): Characterization of materials and devices for optic and optoelectronic applications by electron microscopy. 2001-2003, Ecole polytechnique fédéral de Lausanne, EPFL STI IMX LCCeramics Laboratory, Prof. Nava Setter Characterisation of ferroelectric materials, transmission electron microscopy of relaxor ferroelectric materials 2004, University of Geneva, Physics Department, Condensed matter Physics Group of Prof. R. Flükiger, TEM of Multifilament Nb3Sn superconducting wires, in collaboration with EPFL-CIME Since 1.11.04, EPFL-SB-CIME
Christophe BallifChristophe Ballif is director of the Phototovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratoryb) (PV-Lab at the institute of microengineering (IMT) in Neuchâtel (part of the EPFL since 2009). The lab focus is on the science and technology of high efficiency heterojunction crystalline cells,so-called passivating contacts for solar cells, multi-junction solar cells include novel generation Perovskite on innovative optical high speed detector and on various macroelectronics application. It also deals with energy management with a focus on integration of solar electricity into the energy system. The PV-Lab has strongly contributed to technology transfer and industrialization of novel devices and full technology with numerous companies. Christophe Ballif graduated as a physicist from the EPFL in 1994, where he also obtained in 1998 his Phd degree working on novel PV materials. He accomplished his postdoctoral research at NREL (Golden, US) on compound semiconductor solar cells (CIGS and CdTe). He worked then at the Fraunhofer ISE (Ge) on crystalline silicon photovoltaics (monocrystalline and multi-crystalline) until 2003 and then at the EMPA in Thun (CH) before becoming full professor at the University of Neuchâtel IMT in 2004, taking over the chair of Prof. A. Shah. Since 2013, C.Ballif is also the director of the new CSEM PV-Center, also located in Neuchâtel. The CSEM PV-Center is focussing more on industrialisation and technology transfer in the field of solar energy, including solar electricity management and storage. At the core of the CSEM PV-center activities lies several "pilot lines" for various kinds of solar cells manufacturing, with a focus coating technologies, wet chemistry processes for crystalline silicon, metalisation techniques for solar cells, and a platform for developing "ideal packaging solutions and polymers" for PV modules. In addition, joined facitilites between CSEM and EPFL of over 800 m2 are available for modules manufacturing, measuring and accelerated aging. CSEM PV-center has also full team dedicated to storage and energy systems and operates a joined center with BFH in Biel for research on electrochemical storage. He (co-) authored over 500 journal and technical papers, as well as several patents. He is an elected member of the SATW, member of the scientific council of the Swiss AEE, and member of the board of the EPFL Energy center. In 2016, he recieved the Becquerel prize for his contributions to the field of high efficiency photovoltaics.
Karen ScrivenerDe nationalité anglaise, Karen Scrivener est née en 1958. Au cours de sa carrière, ses travaux et sa recherche traitaient des domaines suivants: Identification du développement microstucturale pendant l'hydratation du ciment. Elaboration d'une approche multitechnique pour étudier la microstucture des ciments et bétons, avec accent sur la quantification par analyse des images d'électrons retrodiffusés. Caractérisation de l'auréole de transition de la pâte de ciment autour des granulats. Compréhension des processus de dégardation des bétons, en particulier le gonflement lié à la formation de l'éttringite retardée dans les bétons étuvés.
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.
Giorgio MargaritondoCitizen of the USA and Switzerland, Giorgio Margaritondo was born in Rome, Italy, in 1946. He received the Laurea summa cum laude from the University of Rome in 1969. From 1969 he was an employee of the Italian National Research Council in Rome and Frascati and, in 1975-77, he was at Bell Laboratories in the USA. From 1978 to 1990, he was professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA; in 1984 he was nominated associate director for research of the Synchrotron Radiation Center of the same university. In 1990 he was nominated "professeur ordinaire" (full professor) at the EPFL; he directed the Institute of Applied Physics and the Physics Department. He was also a honorary faculty member at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. In 2001 he became Dean of the EPFL Faculty of Basic Sciences. In 2004 he was nominated Provost and he served until 2010, when he became Dean of Continuing Education, until his retirement from the EPFL in 2016 In addition to teaching general physics, his activity concerns the physics of semiconductors and superconductors (electronic states, surfaces and interfaces) and of biological systems; his main experimental techniques are electron spectroscopy and spectromicroscopy, x-ray imaging and scanning near-field microscopy, including experiments with synchrotron light and with free electron lasers. Author of more than 700 scientific publications and 9 books, he was also coordinator in 1995-98 of the scientific division of the Elettra synchrotron in Trieste. In 1997-2003 he was coordinator of the European Commission Round Table on synchrotron radiation, and then became president of the Council of the European Commission Integrated Initiative on Synchrotron and Free Electron Laser Science (IA-SFS and then ELISA), the largest network in the world in this domain. In 2011-15, he was Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Physics D (Applied Physics). He is currently vice-president of the council of the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), and president of the Scientific and Technological Committee of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). He is Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Vacuum Society and Fellow and Chartered Physicist of the Institute of Physics.
Graham KnottGraham Knott received his degree in physiology from the University of Southampton, UK, in 1990, and his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Tasmania, Australia, in 1995. He moved to the University of Lausanne in Switzerland in 1999 where he researched the plasticity of neuronal connectivity in the adult brain, developing correlative light and electron microscopy methods for the analysis of in vivo imaged neurons. In 2006 Graham joined the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, establishing the Bio Electron Microscopy Facility and has continued his research interests in brain plasticity and 3D electron microscopy.
