Concept
Agriculture
Related people (36)
Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer
Claudia R. Binder, a Swiss, Canadian and Colombian citizen, was born in Montreal and spent most of her childhood in Switzerland and Colombia. She studied at ETH Zurich from 1985 to 1996, earning a degree in biochemistry and then a PhD in environmental sciences. After conducting her post-doctoral research at the University of Maryland in the US from 1996 to 1998, she returned to Switzerland and took a position as a senior research scientist at ETH Zurich, studying the interaction between human and environmental systems at the Institute for Natural and Social Science Interface. In 2006, Binder joined the University of Zurich as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, and in 2009 moved to the University of Graz in Austria where she served as a full professor of systems science. In 2011, she took a position at the University of Munich’s Department of Geography as a full professor of human-environment relations.
Binder joined EPFL in March 2016 and set up the Laboratory for Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS) at ENAC; she also holds the La Mobilière Chair on Urban Ecology and Sustainable Living.
Her research involves analyzing, modelling and assessing the transition of urban systems towards sustainability. She looks in particular at how we can better understand the dynamics of urban metabolism, what characterizes a sustainable city, and what drives and hinders transformation processes. She does so by combining knowledge from social, natural and data science. Her research focuses on food, energy, and sustainable living and transport in urban systems.
In Switzerland, Binder was appointed to the Research Council, Programs Division of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in 2016 and serves on the Steering Committee of the SNSF’s National Research Program 71, “Managing Energy Consumption” and the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCER). She is also a member of the Steering Board on Sustainability Research for the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, she was elected as a member of the University Council of the University of Munich (LMU).
At EPFL, Binder is the academic director of Design Together, a cross-disciplinary teaching initiative. She was appointed to the management team of the Energy Center in 2018 and as head of the working group on EPFL’s energy and sustainability strategy in 2019.
Edgard Gnansounou
- 1983 Ing. Civil EPFL
- 1991 Dr ès Sciences techniques, EPFL
- Directeur du Laboratoire de systèmes énergétiques (LASEN) de 2003 à 2008
- Dès 2008, Responsable du groupe de Recherche en Bioénergie et Planification énergétique
- Co-fondateur du bureau d'étude ENERS Energy Concept
- Président de la Fondation SUD (Solidarités Universitaires pour le Développement)
Alexandre Buttler
I am a honorary professor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne - EPFL. Up to 2019, I was a joint-professor between EPFL (Head of the laboratory of Ecological Systems - ECOS) and the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL for Forest, Snow and Landscape (Head of the research group Pasture Woodlands and Wetlands) and head of the Site WSL-Lausanne. I was also professor at the laboratory of Chrono-Environnement (UMR CNRS 6249) of the University of Franche-Comté, Besançon (France). I am author or co-author of over 160 papers in international ISI cited peer-reviewed journals.
David Andrew Barry
Research InterestsSubsurface hydrology, constructed wetlands, ecological engineering, in particular contaminant transport and remediation of soil and groundwater; more generally, models of hydrological and vadose zone processes; application of mathematical methods to hydrological processes; coastal zone sediment transport, aquifer-coastal ocean interactions; hydrodynamics and modelling of lakes.
Jean-Claude Bolay
Since January 2020, Jean-Claude Bolay works as consultant, specialized in urban development in Southern countries and in scientific and academic international cooperation.Previously he was Director of the Cooperation & Development Center of EPFL (CODEV) and Professor at the Faculty of Natural, Architectural and Built Environment (ENAC). By training he is sociologist (bachelor) and political scientist (PhD from the University of Lausanne, Prize of the University of Lausanne). To reach his grade, he was awarded a scholarship from the Swiss National Foundation of Science and worked during 2 years in the postgrade Colegio de Mexico, in Mexico City (1982-83) and therefore in the Center for Latin American Studies of the UC Berkeley University, California (1984). From 1986 till 1989 he has been working as senior staff of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in the frame of a slum’ upgrading project of the World Bank and Cameroun Government in Duala, Cameroun. He was contracted by the EPFL in the frame of urban research projects in developing countries, becoming quickly the leader of several projects focused on urban upgrading actions, urban planning, social participation, urban environmental issues and governance in much diversified contexts as Burkina Faso, Bolivia, Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, Vietnam, to cite some of them. He teaches at the master level in the Architecture section since 1995. In 2001 he was named by the President of the EPFL as responsible of the cooperation with emerging and developing countries’ partners, and therefore in 2005 as professor. He is presently leading a team of 25 scientific and administrative collaborators. He published more than 60 articles and edit several books on urban issues in developing countries as on development and scientific cooperation. He is also Director of the UNESCO Chair “Technologies for Development” and has organized 5 International Conference of the Chair focused on the links between research and operational implementation of development’ projects.https://www.mycloud.swisscom.ch/s/S00D9A9B2395F521E74EA94D2341E0A59719C7D75EB