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.
EDUCATION 2000 PHD ès sciences at the Department of Architecture EPFL Lausanne. (Thesis: L'urbanisme en devenir: réseaux et matériaux de l'aménagement urbain à Genève dans les années trente). 1990 Laurea in Architettura at the Institute of Architecture, University of Venice (Italy). EMPLOYMENT HISTORY 2018 Lecturer at Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, UNIL Lausanne. Since 2007 Maître d’Enseignement et de Recherche at the EPFL, ENAC Faculty, at the Laboratory of Urbanism. 2006 Lecturer at the Institute of Geography, University of Neuchâtel. 2000-2007 Research associate and Lecturer at the EPFL, Department of Architecture. 2001-2009 Associate foreign scientist at LOUEST (Laboratoire Organisations Urbaines: Espaces Sociétés Temporalités, UMR CNRS 2410, France). 2000 Maître de Conférence, Section 24 « Aménagement de l’espace, urbanisme » of the French Council of Universities. 1995-2006 Research associate at the Fondation Braillard Architectes, Geneva. INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSABILITIES Since 2018 Member of the Scientific Committee of the EPFL Research Center HABITAT. Since 2017 Member of the Committee of the Doctoral School EDAR. Since 2017 Member of the Scientific Committe of the CAS Thèmes et Echelles de l’Urbanisme, in the frame of the MAS-Continuing Education in Urbanism, EPFL - University of Geneva. Related to these activities, are other roles in the academy: Member of the Library Commission at the EPFL (since 2013) Member of the Research Commission at the ENAC Faculty (2009-1015), Member and/or President of the PhD final exam and Phd admission exam juries for the Doctoral Schools of University of Venice, KU Leuven, Université de Grenoble, Université de Louvain-La-Neuve and EPFL. APPROVED RESEARCH PROJECTS I have a 20 years of experience in interdisciplinary research projects, involving principally the domains of architecture, landscape, environmental engineers, and sociology. My most important research experience relates to the SNF Sinergia "Post-car world. A trans-disciplinary multi-dimensional Simulation" as Partner Leader (Main Leader: Prof. Jacques Lévy), and as Main Leader of the Sub-Project C: "Urbanity. Configuring a Post-Car world" (2013-2017). Others projects to be mentioned: "Urban gardening and human wellbeing in the greater Lausanne area" (Partner leader; ENAC Exploratory Grant 2016-17) ; "Territory in the Crisis" (Partner leader; Compagnia di San Paolo 2013-15) ; "1 km Well-being. The Urban Landscape Observatory" (Partner leader; Swiss cooperation project in architecture, CEPF and CUS Funding 2009-2011); "Résistance et projet. Du destin des Grottes (1930-2030)" (Partner leader; partnership EPFL and Fondation Braillard Architectes). Currently, I’m co-leading the Joint Project "City and Production in the frame of crisis" (Compagnia di San Paolo and Politecnico di Torino) and leading the research project "Designing an interdisciplinary research and education concept in Ecological Habitat" (ENAC Exploratory Grant). SUPERVISION OF JUNIRO RESEARCHERS AT PHD AND POSTDOC LEVELS Currently, I am super-vising 2 and co-supervising 2 Phd theses, after supervising 2 (end 2017) and co-supervising 2 (end 2017-2018). I supervised 1 Post Doc fellowship (2009). TEACHNING ACTIVITIES I am currently teaching in the following fields: History and Theory of urbanism, Theory of contemporary landscape and urban design, Cultural representation of nature, Interdisciplinary issues in Urban and Land Planning. My present classes at EPFL are: Theories of Urbanism I and II (bachelor); UE J Territory and Landscape (master seminar). After being responsible of interdisciplinary education in ENAC-EPFL (Cours ENAC, 2006-08; ENAC Week, 2004-17), I have been increasingly involved in Post graduate education. Namely, I am member of the Board of the CAS Thèmes et Echelles de l’Urbanisme, in the frame of MAS Continuing Education in Urbanism EPFL-UNIGE (Since 2018), after being co-responsible of PhD class Concepts and Theory 1 (EDAR-EPFL 2014-2017). Recently I chaired the Scientific committee of the Doctoral Seminar Comparing habitat in the frame of swissuniversities (2017) and co-coordinated the International Masterclass Territories in the crisis (EPFL-Polytchnique of Turin-University of Venise, 2016). RECENT MEMBERSHIPS IN PANELS, BOARDS, ETC. AND INDIVIDUAL SCIENTIFIC REVIEWING ACTIVITIES 2019 Member of the Research Commission of the Ecole Nationales Supérieure d'Architecture de Grenoble. 2018 President of the Steering Committee of the international Greater Geneva. 2016 Reviewer for the National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (Italy), in the frame of the Evaluation of Research Quality for the years 2011-2014. Since 2015 Scientific expert for the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, Belgium), as reviewer for New research project proposal. 2012-2015 Member of the selection committe for the « Prix Victor and Hélène Barbour » in literary and aesthetical critique, Faculté des Lettres of the University of Geneva. 2011 Scientific expert for the Agence Nationale de Recherche (France), in the frame of the Program Sociétés Innovantes. Innovation, économie, modes de vie. Since 2011 Member of the international scientific committee of the Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme (Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development, France). 2010-2012 Member of the Swiss Committee Europan; President of Scientific Selection committe of Europan 10, Swiss section, Inventer l’urbanité, Concours européen de projets innovants. 2008-2009 Member of the Scientific Committee for the international research-development program « Grand Pari de l’Agglomération Parisienne », French Ministry of Culture and Communication. 2004-2009 Scientific expert for the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (DAPA-BRAUP) in the frame of the interdisciplinary research programs « L’architecture de la grande échelle » and « Art Architecture Paysage ». EDITORIAL BOARDS. Member of the International Editorial Boards of Cahiers de la recherche architecturale, urbaine et paysagère (since 2017), the series Landscripts, Institute of Landscape Architecture, ETHZ-Jovis Publisher, Berlin (since 2012), of the journal Les Carnets du Paysage, Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Paysage, Versailles et Marseille (since 2010). Finally, I am Associate Publisher of the publishing house Metispresses in Geneva and Director of the series “vuesDensemble” and “vuesDensembleEssai” (2008on). ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP IN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, FELLOWSHIPS IN RENOWED ACADEMIES Since 2015 President of the Board of the Fondation Braillard Architectes, Geneva; member of the Board since 2010. 2010-2012 Member of the Board of Utopiana, interdisciplinary artistic plateform, Geneva. 2000-2002 Member of the European Association of Urban History. ORGANISED CONFERENCES I have regularly been a member of Scientific Committee of national and international scientific conferences and symposia, such as: International Symposium Brussels Ecosystem (october 2019), International PhD Seminar U&U Urbanism & Urbanisation (XIX-2018, and VIII-2015), Journées Biennales des Géosciences de l’Environnement de l’UNIL (2018), International Symposium Latsis 2015 (2015), and, before, ERAU European Symposium on Research in Architecture, Urban and Landscape Design (2005), and European Association of Urban History (2002 and 2000). PRIZES AND DISTINCTIONS 1991–1992 Swiss confederation Fellowship at the University of Geneva. Grant of the Swiss Confederation – Conseil de l'Europe.
Senior Lecturer and Senior Scientist at the College of Humanities and at the School of Architecture, EPFLVisiting Professor at the Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino PhD in History and Civilization (EHESS, Paris) Director of the Minor in Area and Cultural Studies (MACS) between 2012 and 2016Member of the Research group Heritage, culture and the cityAssociated researcher at the China Room Research Group and South China-Torino Collaboration Lab, Politecnico di Torino Associate member of the Laboratoire d’anthropologie culturelle et sociale (LACS), UNIL Member of the EDAR committee (Doctoral Program Architecture and Sciences of the City) at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environment Engineering in EPFL Florence Graezer Bideau trained as an anthropologist and a sinologist, and received her PhD in History and Civilization in 2005. Before joining the Centre for Area and Cultural Studies (CACS) at EPFL in 2010, she was a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Lausanne, where she taught courses in cultural theory and fieldwork methodology. She is Senior Lecturer and Senior Scientist at the College of Humanities where she teaches area studies, anthropology of China, critical heritage studies and urban studies. She has been acting as Director of the Minor in Area and Cultural Studies between 2012 and 2016 and she is currently a member of the EDAR committee (Doctoral Program Architecture and Sciences of the City) at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environment Engineering in EPFL. Since 2015, Florence has also been Visiting Professor at the Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Her fields of expertise include anthropology of China, urban sociology, modes of sociability and governmentality. Florence’s research is on the relation between culture and power (making of cultural policy in China; emergence of maker movement (makerspaces) and politics of innovation in China), heritage issues (process of heritagization and multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore; implementation of the UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Switzerland; historic urban landscape in heritage policy of Beijing, Rome and Mexico City), and the making of the city (informal resistances toward the violence of urbanism in Caracas, Chennai and Guangzhou; uses of public spaces in Chinese new towns).
I come from Ticino and studied in Lausanne, between UNIL and EPFL. After my PhD at UNIL in remote sensing, I was postdoc in Valencia (Spain), Boulder (CO) and EPFL, working on model adaptation and prior knowledge integration in machine learning. In 2014 I became Research Assistant Professor at University of Zurich, where I started the 'multimodal remote sensing' group. In 2017, I joined Wageningen University (NL), where I was professor of the GeoInformation Science and Remote Sensing Laboratory. Since 2020, I joined EPFL Valais, to start the ECEO lab, working at the interface between Earth observation, machine learning and environmental sciences.
Examples of international experience:
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Research project in Indonesia (Impact of forest exploitation on the ecological quality of rivers)
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Research project in Columbia (Impacts of petroleum exploitation on rivers and landscapes)
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Teaching at the University of Antananarivo (Sustainable management of natiral resources)
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Other countries: Canada, Sweden, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Switzerland, France, UK
Scientific education:
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Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (Forestry),
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University Laval Quebec (Forest inventory and Statistics),
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University of Edinburgh (Statistics, Biometry),
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Oregon State University (Landscape ecology, Forest ecology).
Professional career:
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Statstician at Ciba-Geigy Basel(1969-1975),
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Professor for Statistics and Physics at the Swiss Engineering School for Agriculture Zollikofen (1975-1982),
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Professor for Forest Management and Forest Biometry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (1982-1987),
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Director general of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensorf and Professor for Forest Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Zürich (1987-1996),
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Professor for Ecosystem Management at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technolgy Lausanne (1997-2005)
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From 2005: Honory Professsor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne
Christophe Van Gerrewey (1982) is an architecture critic and theorist, writing about contemporary buildings, their recent histories and intellectual dimensions, and their connections to society, philosophy, art and literature. In particular, he is an expert on the work of OMA/Rem Koolhaas as well as on Belgian architecture. He is one of the editors of architecture journal OASE, and of art and culture journal De Witte Raaf. In his writings, architecture is considered as a source of comprehensive and integrated knowledge that pertains to diverse disciplines – a way of looking at, and of understanding, many aspects of the world we live in. This gives his activities an unusually broad and comprehensive aspect, transcending divisions of knowledge.
Since 2015, he is Assistant Professor Tenure Track of architecture theory at EPFL Lausanne. He was trained as an architect-engineer at Ghent University and as a literary theorist at KU Leuven. In Dutch, his mother tongue, he has published three novels and a collection of essays between 2013 and 2017.
2018 - to present: WSL, Switzerland; SNSF Ambizione research associate 2015 - 2017: CIRC Abisko, Umeå University, Sweden; Postdoc in permafrost ecology and climate change 2014 - 2015: WSL, Switzerland; Postdoc in peatlands ecology and biogeochemistry 2009 - 2013: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland; PhD in Ecology. 2006 - 2009: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands; MSc in Ecology 2002 - 2005: Jacobs University Bremen, Germany; BSc in Biological Sciences.
