Martin VetterliMartin Vetterli was appointed president of EPFL by the Federal Council following a selection process conducted by the ETH Board, which unanimously nominated him.
Professor Vetterli was born on 4 October 1957 in Solothurn and received his elementary and secondary education in Neuchâtel Canton. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from ETH Zurich (ETHZ) in 1981, a Master’s of Science degree from Stanford University in 1982, and a PhD from EPFL in 1986. Professor Vetterli taught at Columbia University as an assistant and then associate professor. He was subsequently named full professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley before returning to EPFL as a full professor at the age of 38. He has also taught at ETHZ and Stanford University.
Professor Vetterli has earned numerous national and international awards for his research in electrical engineering, computer science and applied mathematics, including the National Latsis Prize in 1996. He is a fellow of both the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member the US National Academy of Engineering. He has published over 170 articles and three reference works.
Professor Vetterli’s work on the theory of wavelets, which are used in signal processing, is considered to be of major importance by his peers, and his areas of expertise, including image and video compression and self-organized communication systems, are central to the development of new information technologies. As the founding director of the National Centre of Competence in Research on Mobile Information and Communication Systems, Professor Vetterli is a staunch advocate of transdisciplinary research.
Professor Vetterli knows EPFL inside and out. An EPFL graduate himself, he began been teaching at the school in 1995, was vice president for International Affairs and then Institutional Affairs from 2004 to 2011, and served as dean of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences in 2011 and 2012. In addition to his role as president of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation, a position he held from 2013 to 2016, he heads the EPFL’s Audiovisual Communications Laboratory (LCAV) since 1995.
Professor Vetterli has supported more than 60 students in Switzerland and the United States in their doctoral work and makes a point of following their highly successful careers, whether it is in the academic or business world.
He is the author of some 50 patents, some of which were the basis for start-ups coming out of his lab, such as Dartfish and Illusonic, while others were sold (e.g. Qualcomm) as successful examples of technology transfer. He actively encourages young researchers to market the results of their work.
Andrea RidolfiI am a professor of Signal Processing and Communication Technologies at Bern University of Applied Sciences.
Since 2004 I hold a lecturer position at EPFL, teaching “Mathematical Principles of Signal Processing” (Doctoral School, 2004 – 2011), “Statistical Signal and Data Processing through Applications” (Master Program, (2004 – ongoing), and Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Digital Humanities (Master, 2017 – 2019, co-taught with Mathieu Salzmann).
Previously, I have been working as Project Manager and R&D Engineer at EPFL (2011-2014), coordinating the LCAV activities within the NSF – Nanotera project Opensense, and as Project Manager and R&D Engineer with the biomedical signal processing group at CSEM (2006-2011).
Urs von StockarOriginaire de Zurich, Urs von Stockar est né en1942. Ingénieur chimiste diplômé de l'EPFZ en 1967, il y est ensuite assistant au Laboratoire de chimie technique et, en 1973, soutient sa thèse couronnée par la médaille d'argent de l'EPFZ.
De 1973 à 1976, il travaille au département de génie chimique de l'Université de Californie. Il y enseigne et participe au développement d'un procédé technique pour la conversion biologique de la cellulose en alcool.
En 1977, il est ingénieur chimiste chez Ciba-Geigy. Fin 1977 il est nommé professeur extraordinaire à l'EPFL. Il dirige l'Institut de génie chimique en 1978/79 et en 1989/90. Il est professeur ordinaire en 1982. En 1982/83 et 1993/95, il dirige le Département de chimie. Son enseignement et sa recherche traitent des opérations de transfert de masse et de la biotechnologie, il s'intéresse également aux questions de bioénergétique et de biothermodynamique. Collaborant avec l'UNIL et l'ISREC, son équipe développe des procédés de fabrication d'anticorps monoclônaux spéciaux, capables de protéger les muqueuses humaines. En 1990 il est nommé professeur associé à l'Université de Genève. Il représente la Suisse dans un groupe d'experts de la Fédération européenne de biotechnologie. Après avoir siégé pendant plusieurs années dans son Comité de direction, il a été nommé président de la Fédération Européenne de Biotechnologie pour la période 1996-97. Depuis 1991, il dirige le Comité de coordination suisse pour la biotechnologie.
Diploma in Chemical Eng.-1967-ETHZ, CH
Ph.D.-1972-ETHZ, CH
Postdoc. Fellow-1973-76-Univ. of California, Berkeley, US
Christoph FreiSince 2009
Secretary General
, World Energy Council (WEC).
Since 2006
Titulary Professor
, Advisor to the President of EPFL and EPFL's Energy Center on energy issues. Expertise: International energy & environment policy and strategy.
2001-2009
Senior Director
, Energy Industries & Strategy at the World Economic Forum (WEF); Member of the Forum's Executive Council.
2002-2003
Lecturer
, postgraduate course on "Energy Systems in an Economywide Framework", for the Master of Science in Energy Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL).
2001-2003
European Master in Applied Ethics
, Ethics Centre, University of Zurich; specialisation in multi-stakeholder theory.
2000-2001
Research fellow
at the Centre for Energy Policy and Economics of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology co-lecturing "Socio-economic aspects of Energy Systems".
1996-2000
Dr ès Sciences
, PhD thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL) and the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen (PSI). Domain: Modelling the links between Energy Policy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Economic Welfare.
1997-2000
Master (DES) in Econometrics
at the University of Geneva.
1995-1997
Master of Science in Energy Systems
at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL); specialisation in Energy Economics and Management.
1995-2001
Research fellow
at the Laboratory of Energy Systems of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL).
1989-1995
Dipl. El.-Ing.
, graduate studies in Electrical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, Zürich (ETHZ) (4th year in Lausanne); training/diploma thesis at the Institute of Microtechnique, University of Neuchâtel (UNINE) (solar cells research). 