Christos ComninellisChristos Comninellis, of Greek origin, born in 1945, received his Bachelor of Science in chemistry (distinction with honor) in 1970 from the University of Alexandria.
From 1971 to 1975, he worked as a chemist at the Institute of chemical engineering at the EPFL, where he achieved his PhD in technical sciences in 1979 for his research on the electrochemical fluorination of organic compounds in anhydrous hydrogen fluoride.
Appointed professor in 1996, he teaches at the Faculty of Basic Sciences (FSB) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL)
Applied Chemistry.
Transport Phenomena.
Chemical and Electrochemical Technologies Related to the Environment.
Electrochemical Engineering.
He also holds a teaching position at the Haute Ecole Valaisanne Sion (HEVs).
His research work is focused on environmental electrochemistry, electrocatalysis, fuel cell and electrochemical promotion in catalysis. An applied research for the utilization of electrochemical techniques in industry for the protection of the environment is a constant concern within his activities. As a result, the collaboration with the industry enabled the development of oxidation processes with regeneration of the oxidant using a new type of bipolar electrochemical reactor.
Christos Comninellis has published over 170 scientific papers, directed 17 doctoral theses and holds 14 patents. He has participated in over 130 international symposia, giving five plenary lectures during the last five years. He has been president of the Evaluation Committee of the FSB since the beginning of 2004 and is member of the jury of the EPFL prize for outstanding PhD-thesis.
Paul Joseph DysonPaul Dyson rejoignit l’EPFL en 2002 à la tête du Laboratoire de chimie organométallique et médicinale de l’Institut des sciences et ingénierie chimiques, dont il en assuma ensuite la direction entre 2008 et 2016.
Le prof. Dyson a été récompensé par de nombreux prix dont le Prix Werner de la Société Suisse de Chimie en 2004, le Prix pour les réalisations exceptionnelles en chimie bio organométallique en 2010, la Médaille du Centenaire de la naissance de Luigi Sacconi (2011) de la Société Italienne de Chimie, le Prix de Chimie bio-inorganique de la Royal Society of Chemistry en 2015, le Prix européen pour une chimie durable de la Société Européenne de Chimie en 2018 et le Prix pour la chimie verte de la Royal Society of Chemistry en 2020.
Le prof. Dyson est également mentionné dans la liste établie par Clarivate des chercheurs les plus cités (Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher), avec un H-index >110 (Web of Science et Google Scholar). Paul Dyson a été élu membre de la Royal Société de Chimie en 2010, membre de l’Académie Européenne des Sciences en 2019 et membre à vie de l’Association Américaine pour l’Avancement de la Science en 2020. Au cours des dernières années il s’est vu décerner le titre de Professeurs Hôte par l’Université de Bourgogne, l’Université de Pierre et Marie Curie, l’Université de Vienne, l’Université de Rome Tor Vergara, l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure de chimie de Paris (Chimie ParisTech) et par l’Université de Shangai Jiao Tong.
De 2016 à 2021 il était membre du conseil de la recherche de la division de mathématique, sciences naturelles et de l’ingénieur du Fonds National Suisse. En 2021, il a été nommé doyen de la Faculté des Sciences de Base.
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. After one year postdoctoral stay with Prof. Graetzel at Swiss federal institute of technology Lausanne (E P F L), he joined the same institute as a Senior Scientist. His current research focuses on Dye-sensitized solar cells, Hydrogen production, Light-emitting diodes and Chemical sensors. He has published more than 380 peer-reviewed papers, ten book chapters, and inventor of 40 patents. The high impact of his work has been recognized with invitations to speak at over 80 international conferences, including the MRS Fall (USA, 2006) and Spring 2011 Meetings, GORDON conference (2014), 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 33'500 citations with an h-index of 89. He is teaching "Functional Materials" course at EPFL, and Korea University; directing, and managing several industrial, national, and European Union projects on Hydrogen energy, Photovoltaics (DSC), and Organic Light Emitting Diodes. 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) and Adjunct Professor by the King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Oleg YazyevProf. Oleg Yazyev (Олег Язев) was born in Simferopol, Crimean peninsula. He obtained his degree in chemistry from Moscow State University in 2003. He then joined Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) completing his PhD thesis in chemistry and chemical engineering in 2007. Next two years he has spent as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP) and the Institute for Numerical Research in the Physics of Materials (IRRMA) of the same institution. In 2009-2011 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Physics of the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In September 2011 he started an independent research group supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation professorship grant. In 2012 he was awarded an ERC Starting grant. His current research focuses on theoretical and computational physics of the recently discovered Dirac fermion materials with strong emphasis on their prospective technological applications. ResearcherID profile of Oleg Yazyev
Philippe GilletPhilippe GILLET est entré à lEcole normale supérieure de la rue dUlm (Paris) pour y mener des études en sciences de la Terre. En 1983, il obtient un PhD en géophysique à luniversité de Paris VII et rejoint luniversité de Rennes I comme assistant. En 1988, titulaire dun doctorat dEtat, il devient professeur dans cette même université et la quitte en 1992 pour rejoindre Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon.
La formation des chaînes de montagnes, et des Alpes en particuliers, est lobjet de la première partie de sa carrière scientifique. En parallèle, il développe des techniques expérimentales (cellules à enclumes de diamants)qui permettent de simuler en laboratoire les conditions de pression et de température qui règnent au sein des planètes. Lobjectif de ces expériences est de comprendre de quels matériaux sont constituées les profondeurs inatteignables des planètes du système solaire.
En 1997, il commence à travailler sur la matière extraterrestre. Il participe à la description de météorites venant de Mars, de la Lune ou de planètes aujourdhui disparues et explique comment celles-ci ont été expulsées de leur planète dorigine par des chocs titanesques avant darriver sur Terre. Il a aussi participé au programme STARDUST de la NASA et contribué à lidentification de grains de comète ramenés sur Terre après avoir été capturés au voisinage de la comète Wild-II. Ces grains représentent les premiers minéraux de notre système solaire, formés il y a plus de 4,5 milliards dannées. Il a aussi travaillé sur les sujets suivants :
interactions entre bacteries et minéraux;
amorphisation sous pression;
techniques expérimentales: cellule à enclumes de diamant, spectroscopie Raman,diffraction des RX sur source synchrotron, microscopie électronique.
Philippe Gillet a aussi une activité de management de la science et de lenseignement. Il a ainsi dirigé lInstitut National des Sciences de lUnivers du CNRS (France), présidé le synchrotron français SOLEIL, lAgence Nationale de la Recherche française(2007) et lEcole normale supérieure de Lyon. Avant de rejoindre lEPFL il a été le directeur de cabinet du Ministre français de la Recherche et de lEnseignement Supérieur.
Quelques 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.
Xile HuXile Hu was born in 1978 in Putian, southeastern China. He entered the Peking University in Beijing in 1996. Besides learning too little chemistry, his biggest regret in the college was not able to correct his southern accent in Mandarin. After graduated from PKU, he went to the United States and began his doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego. In December 2004, he finished with a Ph.D. in chemistry and some fond memories of the beautiful city of San Diego. He then moved to the Los Angeles area and become a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology. There he enjoyed numerous stimulating scientific (and other) discussions with friends and colleagues. He also made plenty of friends outside the campus and was a frequent in many local Chinese restaurants. In 2007, after two pleasant visits to Switzerland, he decided to move across the continent one more time and join the faculty of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He now directs the Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis and is interested in developing chemistry for synthesis, energy and sustainability.