Xile Hu was born in 1978 in Putian, southeastern China. He entered the Peking University in Beijing in 1996. Besides learning too little chemistry, his biggest regret in the college was not able to correct his southern accent in Mandarin. After graduated from PKU, he went to the United States and began his doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego. In December 2004, he finished with a Ph.D. in chemistry and some fond memories of the beautiful city of San Diego. He then moved to the Los Angeles area and become a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology. There he enjoyed numerous stimulating scientific (and other) discussions with friends and colleagues. He also made plenty of friends outside the campus and was a frequent in many local Chinese restaurants. In 2007, after two pleasant visits to Switzerland, he decided to move across the continent one more time and join the faculty of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He now directs the Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis and is interested in developing chemistry for synthesis, energy and sustainability.
BIOGRAPHIE
Professional positions:
P. Vogel was born in Cully (Switzerland) Oct. 23, 1944. In 1969, he did his Ph.D under supervision of Prof. H. Prinzbach at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Lausanne. He spent two years at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA with Prof. Martin Saunders, Prof. J. A. Berson, K. A. Wiberg and P.v.R. Schleyer (Princeton Universtiy). He worked then as a Research chemist at Syntex S.A., in Mexico with Prof. P.Crabbé before the return to the University of Lausanne in 1973. As of 1977 he became Professor of organic chemistry at the University of Lausanne. In 1991 he was Vice-Chairman of the Institute of organic Chemistry, University of Lausanne until 2001. He was also part-time grad.school teacher at the Universities of Rouen and Caen from 1991 to 1993 and Part-time professor at Ecole Polytechnique de Palaiseau from 1993-2000. Since 2001 he is Professor of organic chemistry at the EPFL.
Degrees and distincions
1969 Ph.D, University of Lausanne
1976 Swiss Chemical Society Award, Werner Medal
1984-1989 IOCD adviser
1988-1989 Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at Ecole Normale
Supérieure, Paris
1989-2000 Member of the Swiss National Council of Research
1991-1992 Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry, University of Paris VI
1992 Pacific Coast Lecturer (USA)
1992-1993 Associate Professor at the Université de Montpellier, France
1993 Associate Professor, Université Paris Sud, Orsay
1994 (spring) Associate Professor, ESPCI, Paris
1997 President of the european COST D2 management committee
2002-2003 Novartis Lecturer
2004-2005 Boehringer Ingelheim Distinguished Lecturer
Kay 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).
