Michael GraetzelProfessor of Physical Chemistry at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Michael Graetzel, PhD, directs there the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces. He pioneered research on energy and electron transfer reactions in mesoscopic systems and their use to generate electricity and fuels from sunlight. He invented mesoscopic injection solar cells, one key embodiment of which is the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC). DSCs are meanwhile commercially produced at the multi-MW-scale and created a number of new applications in particular as lightweight power supplies for portable electronic devices and in building integrated photovoltaics. They engendered perovskite solar cells (PSCs) which turned into the most exciting break-through in the history of photovoltaics. He received a number of prestigious awards, of which the most recent ones include the RusNANO Prize, the Zewail Prize in Molecular Science, the Global Energy Prize, the Millennium Technology Grand Prize, the Marcel Benoist Prize, the King Faisal International Science Prize, the Einstein World Award of Science and the Balzan Prize. He is a Fellow of several learned societies and holds eleven honorary doctor’s degrees from European and Asian Universities. His over 1500 publications have received some 220’000 citations with an h-factor of 218 (SI-Web of Science) demonstrating the strong impact of his scientific work.
Jürg Alexander SchiffmannAfter obtaining his diploma in mechanical engineering from EPFL in 1999 he co-founded a start-up company dedicated to the design of gas bearing supported rotors. In 2005 he joined Fischer Engineering Solutions where he led the development of small-scale, gas bearing supported high-speed turbomachinery for fuel cell air supplies and for domestic scale heat pumps. In parallel he worked on his PhD, which he obtained from EPFL in 2008 and for which he was awarded the SwissElectric Research Award. He then joined the Gas Turbine Lab at MIT as a postdoctoral associate where he worked on foil bearings and on the experimental investigation of radial diffusers. In 2013 he was nominated assistant professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he founds the Laboratory for Applied Mechanical Design. His current research interest are in gas lubricated bearings, in aerodynamics of small-scale compressors and turbines and in automated design and optimization methodologies.
David Andrew BarryResearch 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.
Carl PetersenCarl Petersen studied physics as a bachelor student in Oxford (1989-1992). During his PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. Sir Michael Berridge in Cambridge (1992-1996), he investigated cellular and molecular mechanisms of calcium signalling. In his first postdoctoral period (1996-1998), he joined the laboratory of Prof. Roger Nicoll at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to investigate synaptic transmission and plasticity in the hippocampus. During a second postdoctoral period, in the laboratory of Prof. Bert Sakmann at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg (1999-2003), he began working on the primary somatosensory barrel cortex, investigating cortical circuits and sensory processing. Carl Petersen joined the Brain Mind Institute of the Faculty of Life Sciences at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2003, setting up the Laboratory of Sensory Processing to investigate the functional operation of neuronal circuits in awake mice during quantified behavior. In 2019, Carl Petersen became the Director of the EPFL Brain Mind Institute, with the goal to promote quantitative multidisciplinary research into neural structure, function, dysfunction, computation and therapy through technological advances.
Pierre VogelProfessional positions:
P. Vogel was born in Cully (Switzerland) Oct. 23, 1944. In 1969, he did his Ph.D Award under supervision of Prof. H. Prinzbach at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Lausanne. After finishing his Ph.D in 1969, he did post-doctoral research at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA with Prof. Martin Saunders; research associate with Prof. J. A. Berson, K. A. Wiberg and P.v.R. Schleyer (Princeton Universtiy). From 1971 he worked as a Research chemist at Syntex S.A., in Mexico with Prof. P.Crabbé before he returned to the University of Lausanne in 1972. 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. Then he was Part-time grad.school teacher at the Universitites of Rouen and Caen from 1991 to 1993 and Part-time professor at Ecole Polytechnique de Palaiseau from 1993-2000. From 2000-2001 he was reviewer of the "Institut Universitaire de France" and as of 2001 Professor of organic chemistry at the EPFL.
Degrees and distincions
1969 Ph.D, University of Lausanne
1976 Swiss Chemical Society Award, Werner Medal
1973-now Member of the Swiss Chemical Society, of the American Chemical
Society and "Société Française de Chimie"
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
1993-1997 Swiss co-ordinator of the European COST D2 research program
1994 (spring) Associate Professor, ESPCI, Paris
1997 President of the european COST D2 management committee
1999 Coordinator of the european COSRD13
2001-now Member of the "Conseil Scientifique du Département des Sciences
Chimiques", CNRS
2002-2003 Novartis Lectureship
2004-2005 Boehringer INgelheim Distinguished Lecturer
Jeremy Luterbacher
- Masters degree in Chemical Engineering obtained in 2007 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL) (enrolled fall 2005, currently in 3rd semester). Relevant courses: Advanced Separation Processes, Advanced Chemical Reaction Engineering, Process Development and Polymer Chemistry and Macromolecular Engineering. - Bachelors degree in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering obtained in 2005 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). Relevant courses: Transport phenomena, Separation processes, Process command, Applied Energetics, Chemical Reaction Engineering, Chemical Kinetics, Quantum chemistry and Thermodynamics. - High school Maturity completed at the Nyon High School, 2002 (major subjects: biology-chemistry, advanced math, and Latin). Maturity essay completed 12-2001 with distinction - Secondary School certificate obtained in 1999 at the Gland secondary School, Latin-Greek section
Ursula RöthlisbergerU. Röthlisberger was born in Solothurn (Switzerland). In 1988 she made her diploma in Physical Chemistry in the group of Prof. Ernst Schumacher at the University of Berne (Switzerland). Her Ph.D. thesis was done in collaboration with Dr. Wanda Andreoni at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon. After finishing her Ph.D in 1991 she spent some time as a postdoctoral research assistant at the IBM Research Lab. From 1992-1995 she was a postdoctoral research assistant in the group of Prof. Michael L. Klein at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (USA). In 1994 she was awarded an advanced researcher fellowship (Profil 2) from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Before starting her Profile 2-fellowship she spent another year as postdoctoral research assistant in the group of Prof. Michele Parrinello at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Physics in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1996 she moved as Profile 2-fellow to the ETH in Zurich, hosted by the group of Prof. Wilfred F. van Gunsteren. In 1997 she became Assistant Professor of Computer-Aided Inorganic Chemistry at the ETH Zurich.
