François MaréchalPh D. in engineering Chemical process engineer
Researcher and lecturer in the field of computer aided process and energy systems engineering.
Lecturer in the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and environmental sciences engineering in EPFL.
I'm responsible for the Minor in Energy of EPFL and I'm involved in 3 projects of the Competence Center in Energy and Mobility (2nd generation biofuel, Wood SOFC, and gas turbine development with CO2 mitigation) in which i'm contributing to the energy conversion system design and optimisation.
Short summary of my scientific carrer
After a graduation in chemical engineering from the University of Liège, I have obtained a Ph. D. from the University of Liège in the LASSC laboratory of Prof. Kalitventzeff (former president of the European working party on computer aided process engineering). This laboratory was one of the pioneering laboratory in the field of Computer Aided Process Engineering.
In the group of Professor Kalitventzeff, I have worked on the development and the applications of data reconciliation, process modelling and optimisation techniques in the chemical process industry, my experience ranges from nuclear power stations to chemical plants. In the LASSC, I have been responsible from the developments in the field of rational use of energy in the industry. My first research topic has been the methodological development of process integration techniques, combining the use of pinch based methods and of mathematical programming: e.g. for the design of multiperiod heat exchanger networks or Mixed integer non linear programming techniques for the optimal management of utility systems. Fronted with applications in the industry, my work then mainly concentrated on the optimal integration of utility systems considering not only the energy requirements but the cost of the energy requirements and the energy conversion systems. I developed methods for analysing and integrating the utility system, the steam networks, combustion (including waste fuel), gas turbines or other advanced energy conversion systems (cogeneration, refrigeration and heat). The techniques applied uses operation research tools like mixed integer linear programming and exergy analysis. In order to evaluate the results of the utility integration, a new graphical method for representing the integration of the utility systems has been developed. By the use of MILP techniques, the method developed for the utility integration has been extended to handled site scale problems, to incorporate environmental constraints and reduce the water usage. This method (the Effect Modelling and Optimisation method) has been successfully applied to the chemical plants industry, the pulp and paper industry and the power plant. Instead of focusing on academic problems, I mainly developed my research based on industrial applications that lead to valuable and applicable patented results. Recently the methods developed have been extended to realise the thermoeconomic optimisation of integrated systems like fuel cells. My present R&D work concerns the application of multi-objective optimisation strategies in the design of processes and integrated energy conversion systems.
Since 2001, Im working in the Industrial Energy Systems Laboratory (LENI) of Ecole Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where Im leading the R&D activities in the field of Computer Aided Analysis and Design of Industrial Energy Systems with a major focus on sustainable energy conversion system development using thermo-economic optimisation methodologies. A part from the application and the development of process integration techniques, that remains my major field of expertise, the applications concern :
Rational use of water and energy in Industrial processes and industrial production sites : projects with NESTLE, EDF, VEOLIA and Borregaard (pulp and paper).Energy conversion and process design : biofuels from waste biomass (with GASNAT, EGO and PSI), water dessalination and waste water treatment plant (VEOLIA), power plant design (ALSTOM), Energy conversion from geothermal sources (BFE). Integrated energy systems in urban areas : together with SCANE and SIG (GE) and IEA annexe 42 for micro-cogeneration systems.
I as well contributed to the definition of the 2000 Watt society and to studies concerning the emergence of green technologies on the market in the frame of the Alliance for Global Sustainability.
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.
Maxime Carl FelderMaxime Felder holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Geneva. His dissertation - "Building familiarity. Coexistence in an urban context" - dealt with how urbanites manage to coexist peacefully, in a residential context, without knowing each other personally. He is now involved in a new research project on cities' hospitality towards newcomers.
Anton SchleissProf. Dr. Anton J. Schleiss graduated in Civil Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1978. After joining the Laboratory of Hydraulic, Hydrology and Glaciology at ETH as a research associate and senior assistant, he obtained a Doctorate of Technical Sciences on the topic of pressure tunnel design in 1986. After that he worked for 11 years for Electrowatt Engineering Ltd. (now Pöyry) in Zurich and was involved in the design of many hydropower projects around the world as an expert on hydraulic engineering and underground waterways. Until 1996 he was Head of the Hydraulic Structures Section in the Hydropower Department at Electrowatt. In 1997, he was nominated full professor and became Director of the Laboratory of Hydraulic Constructions (LCH) in the Civil Engineering Department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). The LCH activities comprise education, research and services in the field of both fundamental and applied hydraulics and design of hydraulic structures and schemes. The research focuses on the interaction between water, sediment-rock, air and hydraulic structures as well as associated environmental issues and involves both numerical and physical modeling of water infrastructures. In May 2018, he became Honorary Professor at EPFL. More than 50 PhD and Postdoc research projects have been carried out under his guidance. From 1999 to 2009 he was Director of the Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Water Resources Management and Hydraulic Engineering held in Lausanne in collaboration with ETH Zurich and the universities of Innsbruck (Austria), Munich (Germany), Grenoble (France) and Liège (Belgium). From 2006 to 2012 he was the Head of the Civil Engineering program of EPFL and chairman of the Swiss Committee on Dams (SwissCOLD). In 2006, he obtained the ASCE Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Price as well as the J. C. Stevens Award. He was listed in 2011 among the 20 international personalities that “have made the biggest difference to the sector Water Power & Dam Construction over the last 10 years”. Between 2014 and 2017 he was Council member of International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) and he was chair of the Europe Regional Division of IAHR until 2016. For his outstanding contributions to advance the art and science of hydraulic structures engineering he obtained in 2015 the ASCE-EWRI Hydraulic Structures Medal. The French Hydro Society (SHF) awarded him with the Grand Prix SHF 2018. After having served as vice-president between 2012 and 2015 he was president of the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) from 2015 to 2018. On behalf of ICOLD he his the coordinator of the EU Horizon 2020 project "Hydropower Europe". With more than 40 years of experience he is regularly involved as a consultant and expert in large water infrastructures projects including hydropower and dams all over the world. Awards (besides those mentioned above): ASCE-Journal of Hydraulic Engineering Outstanding Reviewer Recognition 2013 ASCE-EWRI-Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 2014 Best Technical Note
Franz GrafA graduate in architecture of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Franz Graf (°1958) has worked as a freelance architect in Geneva since 1989. A lecturer in architecture and construction at the University of Geneva (1989-2006), he became Full Professor of Technology at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio in 2005 and Associate Professor of Architectural Theory and Design at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 2007, as head of Laboratory of Techniques and Preservation of Modern Architecture.
His research focuses on knowledge of modern and contemporary systems of construction and techniques of preservation of 20th-century heritage. He has published in major reference works on Perret (2002), Prouvé (2005 and 2018), Mangiarotti (2010 and 2015), Addor (2015), Le Corbusier (2017), etc. In 2014, he publish the reference book on restoration of modern architecture, “Histoire matérielle du bâti et projet de sauvegarde”, PPUR, Lausanne.
Since 2010 he has been President of Docomomo Switzerland and a member of the International Specialist Committee on Technology, and since 2012 member or the “Comité des experts pour la restauration de l’oeuvre” of the Le Corbusier Fondation. From 2008 to 2014, he is co-director of the research project Critical Encyclopaedia for Reuse and Restoration of 20th-century Architecture.
Giulia MarinoGiulia Marino has a Master’s degree in architecture in History and theories of restoration of monuments from the University of Florence (MA, 2003) and a PhD in architecture from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (PhD, 2014; EPFL Doctorate Award 2016). She obtained also a Postgraduate Master in Preservation of modern and contemporary built heritage from the University of Geneva (DEA, 2006).
Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain, LOCI Faculty (UCLouvain, Bruxelles, Belgium) and researcher at the Laboratory of Techniques and Preservation of Modern Architecture at the EPFL (Switzerland), Giulia Marino is also consultant architect in heritage preservation.
Her scientific interests are centred on history of strategies for the conservation of the modern and contemporary heritage, and on the history of construction techniques and twentieth-century building services. She has developed these two main strands of research in her work, as well as the monumental heritage of the interwar period (e.g. Le Corbusier’s studio-apartment at 24NC, commissioned by the Foundation Le Corbusier, 2014, with a grant from the Getty Foundation) and in the extensive corpus of architectural production 1945-75 (e.g. Stratégies pour la cité du Lignon, 2009-2012; Europa Nostra Award 2013, SIA-Umsicht Award 2013).
She has given lectures in Europe (Paris, Lisbon, Brussels, Milan, Luxembourg, etc.) and internationally (Chandigarh, Mexico City, Tokyo, Montreal, etc.). She has also presented at numerous international conferences and published papers and articles (Werk, Arquitectura Viva, AMC, etc.) as well as a monograph on the CAF building in Paris (Picard, 2009, 270 p.), and a book on the restoration of the Cité du Lignon housing complex, as well as being responsible for its scientific conception and coordination (Infolio, 2012, 160 p.). She recently coedited the volume Building Environment and Interiors Comfort in 20th-Century Architecture: Understanding Issues and Developing Conservation Strategies (PPUR, 2016) and Les multiples vies de l’appartement-atelier. Le Corbusier (PPUR, 2017). After the monograph on the Buvette d’Evian by Jean Prouvé (Infolio, 2018) and the volume Avanchet-Parc, “cité de conception nouvelle et originale (Infolio, 2020), she is working on the publication of her PhD at the Éditions Métispresses and the proceedings of International Study Day “Restoring Jean Prouvé” (PPUR, 2021).
She is Vice President of Docomomo Switzerland since 2015 and member of the board of Docomomo Belgium since 2020.
She is also a member of ICOMOS Schweiz, the Swiss Heritage Society, the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects-SIA, Associazione italiana per la storia dell’ingegneria, Association francophone d’histoire de la construction and the Construction History Society.
