Philippe GilletPhilippe GILLET completed his undergraduate studies in Earth Science at Ecole normale supérieure de la rue dUlm (Paris). In 1983 he obtained a PhD in Geophysics at Université de Paris VII and joined Université de Rennes I as an assistant. Having obtained a State Doctorate in 1988, he became a Professor at this same university, which he left in 1992 to join Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon.
The first part of his research career was devoted to the formation of mountain ranges particularly of the Alps. In parallel, he developed experimental techniques (diamond anvil cells) to recreate the pressure and temperature prevailing deep inside planets in the lab. These experiments aim at understanding what materials make up the unreachable depths of planets in the solar system.
In 1997, Gillet started investigating extraterrestrial matter. He was involved in describing meteorites coming from Mars, the moon or planets which have disappeared today and explaining how these were expelled from their original plant by enormous shocks which propelled them to Earth. He also participated in the NASA Stardust program and contributed to identify comet grains collected from the tail of Comet Wild 2 and brought back to Earth. These grains represent the initial minerals in our solar system and were formed over 4.5 billion years ago. He has also worked on the following subjects:
Interactions between bacteria and minerals.
Solid to glass transition under pressure.
Experimental techniques: laser-heated diamond anvil cell, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction with synchrotron facilities, electron microscopy.
Philippe Gillet is also active in science and education management. He was the Director of the CNRS Institut National des Sciences de lUnivers (France), the President of the French synchrotron facility SOLEIL and of the French National Research Agency (2007), and the Director of Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon. Before joining EPFL he was the Chief of Staff of the French Minister of Higher Education and Research.
Selected publications:
Ferroir, T., L. Dubrovinsky, A. El Goresy, A. Simionovici, T. Nakamura, and P. Gillet (2010), Carbon polymorphism in shocked meteorites: Evidence for new natural ultrahard phases, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 290(1-2), 150-154.
Barrat J.A., Bohn M., Gillet Ph., Yamaguchi A. (2009) Evidence for K-rich terranes on Vesta from impact spherules. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 44, 359374.
Brownlee D, Tsou P, Aleon J, et al. (2006) Comet 81P/Wild 2 under a microscope. Science, 314, 1711-1716.
Beck P., Gillet Ph., El Goresy A., and Mostefaoui S. (2005) Timescales of shock processes in chondrites and Martian meteorites. Nature 435, 1071-1074.
Blase X., Gillet Ph., San Miguel A. and Mélinon P. (2004) Exceptional ideal strength of carbon clathrates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 215505-215509.
Gillet Ph. (2002) Application of vibrational spectroscopy to geology. In Handbook of vibrational spectroscopy, Vol. 4 (ed. J. M. Chalmers and P. R. Griffiths), pp. 1-23. John Wiley & Sons.
Gillet Ph., Chen C., Dubrovinsky L., and El Goresy A. (2000) Natural NaAlSi3O8 -hollandite in the shocked Sixiangkou meteorite. Science 287, 1633-1636.
Anders MeibomAnders Meibom obtained his PhD in physics from the University of Southern Denmark in 1997. This was followed by two and a half years of PostDoc work at the Hawaii Institute for Geophysics and Planetology, where he conducted mineralogical studies of primitive chondritic meteorites. From 2000 to 2005, he was Research Associate in the Geological & Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, where he represented Stanford in the USGS-Stanford ion microprobe laboratory. In 2005, he became proifessor at the Muséum National dHistoire Naturelle in Paris. From 2006 to 2011 he was the director of the French national NanoSIMS laboratory. Since January 2012, he is professor at the EPFL in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC). From April 2014, he is professor ad personam at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne.
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
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. Cécile HébertCécile Hébert was born in France in 1970. She obtained her Ingeneer degree (physics) and her PhD degree (design of a new energy filter for transmission electron microscopy, under the direction of Prof. B. Jouffrey) at the Ecole Centrale in Paris.
As a post doc with Prof. P. Schattschneider, she was working on the calculation of the fine structure of ionisation edges in EELS. As a research assistant at the Vienna University of Technology, she was one of the main participant to the CHIRALTEM project dealing with the measurement of magnetic circular dichroism in the electron microscope.