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.
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.
Harald BruneOriginaire de Münich en Allemagne, né en 1961, Harald Brune obtient son diplôme en physique de l'Université Ludwig Maximilians en 1989. Après une thèse en chimie physique à l'Institut Fritz-Haber de la Société Max-Planck à Berlin il obtient son titre de docteur ès sciences en 1992. Dès cela, il rejoint le groupe du Prof. K. Kern à l'Institut de physique expérimentale à l'EPFL. En 1995 il est chercheur invité à Copenhague travaillant en modélisation chez le Prof. J. Nørskov. De retour à l'EPFL, il se voit décerné le prix Latsis EPFL 1996 pour ses études par microscopie à effet tunnel de processus atomiques déterminants la croissance cristalline de couches minces. En 1998 il obtient son habilitation (venia legendi) en Physique et est nommé Maître d'enseignement et de recherche (MER) en nanophysique à l'EPFL. La même année il recoit une offre de Professeur Ordinaire (C4) de l'Université Philipps de Marburg. Début 1999 il réfuse cette offre et accepte un poste de Professeur Extraordinaire à l'EPFL et s'installe au sein de l'Institut de la Physique des Nanostructures. Il est nommé Professeur Ordinaire en 2005. Sa recherche porte sur les propriétés physiques (en particulier le magnétisme et la structure électronique) de nouvelles formes de la matière condensée comme des nanostructures et des couches ultra-minces. Il s'intéresse également à la catalyse hétérogène sur des systèmes inspirés dans leur composition et taille par celle des sites actives dans les enzymes en biologie. Il enseigne la Physique Générale pour ingénieurs, la Physique des matériaux solides pour physiciens, les méthodes expérimentales pour physiciens, ainsi que la Physique des surfaces, interfaces et nanostrcutures à l'école doctorale.
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
Emad OveisiDr Emad Oveisi is a senior scientist at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Electron Microscopy (CIME), EPFL.
Emad received a BSc in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (2005) and an MSc in Materials Science (2008) both from the University of Tehran (Iran). He graduated with a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at EPFL in 2014 for a thesis on the "Three-Dimensional STEM Imaging of Dislocations" under the direction of Prof. Cécile Hébert. The PhD thesis at the Electron Spectrometry and Microscopy Laboratory (LSME), served as an introduction to many of the advanced microscopy techniques that have proven to be a platform for his research career. A post-doctoral research at the centre for electron microscopy gave him the opportunity to peruse a cutting-edge research on one of the most modern aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes.Since the inauguration of the Energypolis campus of EPFL in Sion, he has been the manager and reference scientist of the electron microscopy platform of EPFL-Valais, working with 9 research groups and more than 200 researchers. In addition to this core responsibility, he provides advanced microscopy consulting and service to EPFL scientists and assist their research to the highest level possible.
Emad Oveisi’s research focuses on the application and development of novel electron microscopy techniques, with emphasis on 3D imaging of crystal defects, as well as the precision measurement of materials properties using aberration-corrected S/TEM. In 2018, he received the prestigious Microscopy Innovation Award for inventing “Single-shot three-dimensional electron imaging”, a novel technique that enables 3D imaging of in situ dynamics.
In 2016 Emad was elected as an interim representative for the scientific staff ("corps intermédiaire") to the Council of the Institute of Chemistry (ISIC). Since 2019, he is a member of EPFL Teachers’ Council (CCE) and has been elected as one of its four bureau members. This role allows him to be exposed to new ideas and pedagogical challenges, as well being involved in discussions with the Vice Presidency of Education (VPE) and other teaching organisations for defining teaching strategies at the EPFL.
