Kathryn Hess BellwaldKathryn Hess Bellwald received her PhD from MIT in 1989 and held positions at the universities of Stockholm, Nice, and Toronto before moving to the EPFL.Her research focuses on algebraic topology and its applications, primarily in the life sciences, but also in materials science. She has published extensively on topics in pure algebraic topology including homotopy theory, operad theory, and algebraic K-theory. On the applied side, she has elaborated methods based on topological data analysis for high-throughput screening of nanoporous crystalline materials, classification and synthesis of neuron morphologies, and classification of neuronal network dynamics. She has also developed and applied innovative topological approaches to network theory, leading to a powerful, parameter-free mathematical framework relating the activity of a neural network to its underlying structure, both locally and globally.In 2016 she was elected to Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences and was named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a distinguished speaker of the European Mathematical Society in 2017. In 2021 she gave an invited Public Lecture at the European Congress of Mathematicians. She has won several teaching prizes at EPFL, including the Crédit Suisse teaching prize and the Polysphère d’Or.
Gavin Jay SealAfter completing my studies at the University of Geneva, and obtaining a PhD from the Free University of Brussels, I went on to complete postdocs at York University in Toronto and McGill University in Montreal. Following a on-year position as Temporary Assistant Professor at Georgia Southern University in the United States, I integrated Kathryn Hess research group at the EPFL in 2009 thanks to a Marie-Curie International Reintegration Grant. I taught the Geometry and Mathematics courses to the architects from 2012 to 2014, and since 2012 I have been teaching mathematics for the talented youth at the Euler course.
Viktor KuncakViktor Kunčak joined EPFL in 2007, after receiving a PhD degree from MIT. Since then has been leading the Laboratory for Automated Reasoning and Analysis and supervised at least 12 completed PhD theses. His works on languages, algorithms and systems for verification and automated reasoning. He served as an initiator and one of the coordinators of a European network (COST action) in the area of automated reasoning, verification, and synthesis. In 2012 he received a 5-year single-investigator European Research Council (ERC) grant of 1.5M EUR. His invited talks include those at Lambda Days, Scala Days, NFM, LOPSTR, SYNT, ICALP, CSL, RV, VMCAI, and SMT. A paper on test generation he co-authored received an ACM SIGSOFT distinguished paper award at ICSE. A PLDI paper he co-authored was published in the Communications of the ACM as a Research Highlight article. His Google Scholar profile reports an over-approximate H-index of 38. He was an associate editor of ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) and served as a co-chair of conferences on Computer-Aided Verification (CAV), Formal Methods in Computer Aided Design (FMCAD), Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT), and Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI). At EPFL he teaches courses on functional and parallel programming, compilers, and verification. He has co-taught the MOOC "Parallel Programming" that was visited by over 100'000 learners and completed by thousands of students from all over the world.
Eva Bayer FluckigerEtudes a l'Université de Genève. Apres son diplôme de mathématicien obtenu en 1975, elle prépare sa thèse de doctorat sous la direction du professeur Michel Kervaire, thèse soutenue en 1978. Après plusieurs séjours postdoctoraux en Allemagne, France et les Etats-Unis, elle entre au CNRS en 1987. En 2001, elle est nommée professeure ordinaire a l'EPFL.
Eva Bayer Fluckiger a eu une bourse de la Fondation Alexander von Humboldt en 1980, elle a reçu le prix Vacheron Constantin en 1983, le prix Maria Sybilla Merian en 2001. Elle a effectué des séjours de recherche à l'Institute for Advanced Study,Princeton, au Max-Planck Institute für Mathematik, à Bonn, ainsi qu'au Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, à Berkeley. Elle a été membre du comité exécutif de la Société Mathématique Européenne, fait partie de plusieurs comités de l'Union Européenne et de la Fondation Européenne pour la Science, ainsi que membre de comités scientifiques d'instituts de recherche, de comités d'évaluation, etc. Elle a aussi été membre (et parfois présidente) de plusieurs comités scientifiques de congrès internationaux.
Eva Bayer Fluckiger est éditrice de cinq revues internationales de mathématiques. Ses domaines de recherche sont la théorie algébrique des nombres, la cohomologie galoisienne des groupes algébriques, les formes quadratiques, hermitiennes, et algèbres à involution, la théorie des noeuds, ainsi que l'application de l'algèbre et de la théorie des nombres aux codes algébriques.
Christophe BallifChristophe Ballif is director of the Phototovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratoryb) (PV-Lab at the institute of microengineering (IMT) in Neuchâtel (part of the EPFL since 2009). The lab focus is on the science and technology of high efficiency heterojunction crystalline cells,so-called passivating contacts for solar cells, multi-junction solar cells include novel generation Perovskite on innovative optical high speed detector and on various macroelectronics application. It also deals with energy management with a focus on integration of solar electricity into the energy system. The PV-Lab has strongly contributed to technology transfer and industrialization of novel devices and full technology with numerous companies. Christophe Ballif graduated as a physicist from the EPFL in 1994, where he also obtained in 1998 his Phd degree working on novel PV materials. He accomplished his postdoctoral research at NREL (Golden, US) on compound semiconductor solar cells (CIGS and CdTe). He worked then at the Fraunhofer ISE (Ge) on crystalline silicon photovoltaics (monocrystalline and multi-crystalline) until 2003 and then at the EMPA in Thun (CH) before becoming full professor at the University of Neuchâtel IMT in 2004, taking over the chair of Prof. A. Shah. Since 2013, C.Ballif is also the director of the new CSEM PV-Center, also located in Neuchâtel. The CSEM PV-Center is focussing more on industrialisation and technology transfer in the field of solar energy, including solar electricity management and storage. At the core of the CSEM PV-center activities lies several "pilot lines" for various kinds of solar cells manufacturing, with a focus coating technologies, wet chemistry processes for crystalline silicon, metalisation techniques for solar cells, and a platform for developing "ideal packaging solutions and polymers" for PV modules. In addition, joined facitilites between CSEM and EPFL of over 800 m2 are available for modules manufacturing, measuring and accelerated aging. CSEM PV-center has also full team dedicated to storage and energy systems and operates a joined center with BFH in Biel for research on electrochemical storage. He (co-) authored over 500 journal and technical papers, as well as several patents. He is an elected member of the SATW, member of the scientific council of the Swiss AEE, and member of the board of the EPFL Energy center. In 2016, he recieved the Becquerel prize for his contributions to the field of high efficiency photovoltaics.
