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). Gervais ChapuisClick here for a more complete biography
Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland. After graduating in crystallography in 1966, he prepared his PhD thesis in the same institution under the direction of Prof.. A. Niggli which he obtained in 1972. For three years he continued his research at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California in the laboratory of Prof. D. H. Templeton, a well-known specialist in the field of resonant scattering. Back in Switzerland, he joined the newly created Institute of Crystallography at the University of Lausanne under the direction of Prof.. D. Schwarzenbach. In 1991 he was appointed full professor and in 1999, director of the Institute of crystallography. In 2003, his unit was transferred to the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL) where he was appointed professor.
G. Chapuis has chaired numerous committees in national and international organisations in the field of crystallography. In particular, he chaired the committee of aperiodic structures of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). He is also a member of the Education Committee of that organization. He also chaired the Swiss Society of Crystallography.
G. Chapuis is co-editor of the Journal Acta Crystallographica and participates in many committees for various readings of academic journals devoted to crystallography and solid state physics.
His research areas cover more specifically the theoretical and experimental study of aperiodic structures, especially incommensurate structures by diffraction and molecular dynamics. He is the author of over two hundred scientific papers published in international peer-reviewed journals. Moreover G. Chapuis is dedicated to the development of interactive teaching in crystallography using new communication technologies available on the Internet.
Ursula RöthlisbergerU. Röthlisberger was born in Solothurn (Switzerland). In 1988 she made her diploma in Physical Chemistry in the group of Prof. Ernst Schumacher at the University of Berne (Switzerland). Her Ph.D. thesis was done in collaboration with Dr. Wanda Andreoni at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon. After finishing her Ph.D in 1991 she spent some time as a postdoctoral research assistant at the IBM Research Lab. From 1992-1995 she was a postdoctoral research assistant in the group of Prof. Michael L. Klein at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (USA). In 1994 she was awarded an advanced researcher fellowship (Profil 2) from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Before starting her Profile 2-fellowship she spent another year as postdoctoral research assistant in the group of Prof. Michele Parrinello at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Physics in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1996 she moved as Profile 2-fellow to the ETH in Zurich, hosted by the group of Prof. Wilfred F. van Gunsteren. In 1997 she became Assistant Professor of Computer-Aided Inorganic Chemistry at the ETH Zurich.
Alfredo PasquarelloAlfredo Pasquarello studied physics at the
Scuola Normale Superiore
of Pisa and at the University of Pisa, obtaining their respective degrees in 1986. He obtained a doctoral degree at the EPFL in 1991 with a thesis on
Multiphoton Transitions in Solids
. Then, he moved to Bell Laboratories at Murray Hill (New Jersey), where he carried out postdoctoral research on the magnetic properties of carbon fullerenes. In 1993, he joined the Institute for Numerical Research in the Physics of Materials (IRRMA), where his activity involved first-principles simulation methods. In 1998, he was awarded the EPFL Latsis Prize for his research work on disordered silica materials. Succeeding in grant programs of the Swiss National Science Foundation, he then set up his own research group at IRRMA. In July 2003, he is appointed Professor in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at EPFL. Currently, he leads the Chair of Atomic Scale Simulation.
Mohammad Khaja NazeeruddinDr. Md. K. Nazeeruddin received M.Sc. and Ph. D. in inorganic chemistry from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. He joined as a Lecturer in Deccan College of Engineering and Technology, Osmania University in 1986, and subsequently, moved to Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar, as a Research Associate. He was awarded the Government of Indias fellowship in 1987 for study abroad. In 2014, EPFL awarded him the title of Professor. His current research at EPFL focuses on Dye Sensitized Solar Cells, Perovskite Solar Cells, CO2 reduction, Hydrogen production, and Light-emitting diodes. He has published more than 509 peer-reviewed papers, ten book chapters, and he is inventor/co-inventor of over 50 patents. The high impact of his work has been recognized by invitations to speak at over 130 international conferences, and has been nominated to the OLLA International Scientific Advisory Board. He appeared in the ISI listing of most cited chemists, and has more than 49'000 citations with an h-index of 105. He is teaching "Functional Materials" course at EPFL, and Korea University; directing, and managing several industrial, national, and European Union projects. He was awarded EPFL Excellence prize in 1998 and 2006, Brazilian FAPESP Fellowship in 1999, Japanese Government Science & Technology Agency Fellowship, in 1998, Government of India National Fellowship in 1987-1988. Recently he has been appointed as World Class University (WCU) professor by the Korea University, Jochiwon, Korea (http://dses.korea.ac.kr/eng/sub01_06_2.htm), Adjunct Professor by the King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Eminent Professor in Brunei. Klaus KernKlaus Kern is Professor of Physics at EPFL and Director and Scientific Member at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany. He also is Honorary Professor at the University of Konstanz, Germany. His present research interests are in nanoscale science, quantum technology and in microscopy at the atomic limits of space and time. He holds a chemistry degree and PhD from the University of Bonn and a honorary doctors degree from the University of Aalborg. After his doctoral studies he was staff scientist at the Research Center Jülich and visiting scientist at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill before joining the Faculty of EPFL in 1991 and the Max-Planck-Society in 1998. Professor Kern has authored and coauthored close to 700 scientific publications, which have received nearly 60‘000 citations. He has served frequently on advisory committees to universities, professional societies and institutions and has received numerous scientific awards and honors, including the 2008 Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Prize and the 2016 Van‘t Hoff Prize. Prof. Kern has also educated a large number of leading scientists in nanoscale physics and chemistry. During the past twenty-five years he has supervised one hundred PhD students and sixty postdoctoral fellows. Today, more than fifty of his former students and postdocs hold prominent faculty positions at Universities around the world.
Stefano RusponiEducation:
• 1999 Doctoral degree in Physics obtained at the Physics Department, University of Genova PhD thesis title: “STM study of nanostructures induced by ion sputtering on noble metals”.
• 1994 University degree in Physics achieved at the Physics Department, University of Genova. Final mark: 110/110 cum laude
Diploma thesis title: “A project for a new method of EELS spectroscopy”.
• 1988 High school at the Liceo Scientifico G. P. Vieusseux in Imperia. Final mark: 60/60.
Research career plan:
• 2016 – present MER: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the group of Prof. Harald Brune
• 2003 – 2016: 1er. Assistant: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the group of Prof. Harald Brune
• 2000-2003: Assistant: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) under the direction of Prof. Harald Brune
• 1999-2000: Research associate: Max-Planck-Institut of Stuttgart under the direction of Prof. Klaus Kern
Miscellaneous of professional activities:
a) Review panel
• Member of the Elettra proposal review panel
• Member of the committee of the EDPY doctoral school in Physics at the EPFL
b) Co-worker in the building of the X-Treme beamline:
c) Referee for scientific journals:
• Nat. Commun., Phys. Rev. Lett., Phys. Rev. B, J. Appl. Phys., Surf. Sci., J. Magn. Magn. Mater.
Funding record
a) Funding awarded
• Quantum Properties of Nanostructures at Surfaces, FNS 200020-157081/1;
(01/10/2014 – 31/09/2017); total amount attributed: 832'558 CHF; co-applicant
• Controlling magnetic anisotropy by interfacial coupling, FNS 200021_146715/1;
(01/01/2014 – 31/12/2016); total amount attributed: 367'800 CHF; co-applicant
• Self-assembled bi-metallic magnetic pillar superlattices with enhanced blocking temperature, SER C10.0135; (01/08/2011 – 01/08/2013); total amount attributed: 170'000 CHF; co-applicant
• Magnetic and Catalytic Properties of Surface Supported Metallic Nanostructures, FNS 200020-120493/1; (01/04/2008 – 31/03/2010); total amount attributed: 402'669 CHF; co-applicant
• Magnetic and Catalytic Properties of Surface Supported Metallic Nanostructures, FNS 200020-112322/1; (01/04/2006 – 31/03/2008); total amount attributed: 347'633 CHF; co-applicant
b) Approved proposals for the allocation of beamtime
Swiss Light Source (SLS):
main proposer: 9
co-proposer: 4
Elettra:
main proposer: 5
co-proposer: 1
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF):
main proposer: 2
co-proposer: 11
Student supervisor
• Co-director of PhD thesis: 4 PhD students
-
Dimitris Mousadakos: Seeking the smallest room temperature magnets; (in progress)
-
Romana Baltic: Controlling single atom magnetic anisotropy by interfacial coupling; (in progress)
-
Alberto Cavallin: Growth and magnetism of nanostructures investigated by STM, MOKE, and XMCD; (Oct. 2013), Thèse N°5941
-
Sergio Vlaic: Magnetism and atomic scale structure of bimetallic nanostructures at surfaces; (Dec. 2012), Thèse N° 5625
• Supervisor of PhD thesis (without co-direction): 4 PhD students
-
Anne Lehnert: Magnetism of individual adatoms and of epitaxial monolayers; (Jun. 2009), Thèse N° 4411
-
Geraud Moulas: Growth and magnetism of 2D bimetallic nanostructures; (Dec. 2008), Thèse N° 4231
-
Philipp Buluschek: Submonolayer growth of cobalt on metallic and insulating surfaces studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and kinetic Monte-Carlo simulations; (Nov. 2007), Thèse N° 3944
-
Nicolas Weiss: Propriétés magnétiques de nanostructures de Co adsorbées; (Apr. 2004), Thèse N° 2980
• Supervisor of Master thesis: 6 students
• Supervisor of semester projects: 9 students
• PhD thesis referee: 2 students