Nava SetterNava Setter completed MSc in Civil Engineering in the Technion (Israel) and PhD in Solid State Science in Penn. State University (USA) (1980). After post-doctoral work at the Universities of Oxford (UK) and Geneva (Switzerland), she joined an R&D institute in Haifa (Israel) where she became the head of the Electronic Ceramics Lab (1988). She began her affiliation with EPFL in 1989 as the Director of the Ceramics Laboratory, becoming Full Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in 1992. She had been Head of the Materials Department in the past and more recently has served as the Director of the Doctoral School for Materials.
Research at the Ceramics Laboratory, which Nava Setter directs, concerns the science and technology of functional ceramics focusing on piezoelectric and related materials: ferroelectrics, dielectrics, pyroelectrics and also ferromagnetics. The work includes fundamental and applied research and covers the various scales from the atoms to the final devices. Emphasis is given to micro- and nano-fabrication technology with ceramics and coupled theoretical and experimental studies of the functioning of ferroelectrics.
Her own research interests include ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics: in particular the effects of interfaces, finite-size and domain-wall phenomena, as well as structure-property relations and the pursuit of new applications. The leading thread in her work over the years has been the demonstration of how basic or fundamental concepts in materials - particularly ferroelectrics - can be utilized in a new way and/or in new types of devices. She has published over 450 scientific and technical papers.
Nava Setter is a Fellow of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the World Academy of Ceramics. Among the awards she received are the Swiss-Korea Research Award, the ISIF outstanding achievement award, and the Ferroelectrics-IEEE recognition award. In 2010 her research was recognized by the European Union by the award of an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant. Recently she received the IEEE-UFFC Achievement Award (2011),the W.R. Buessem Award(2011), the Robert S. Sosman Award Lecture (American Ceramics Society) (2013), and the American Vacuum Society Recognition for Excellence in Leadership (2013).
César PulgarinProf. C. Pulgarin is Chemist from Lausanne University, Master in environmental chemistry from Geneva University, Ph D in synthesis bio-inspired of natural substances from Neuchâtel University. During his education he carried out several industrial trainings.
Since March 1989, he has been working at the EPFL where he is leader of the Advanced Oxidation Processes Group (GPAO) active in the development chemical, photochemical, electrochemical, ultrasonic processes, their coupling between them and with biological systems to degrade chemical and microbiological pollutants in water and air. He has an H index of 40 and he is the world most cited author in 1) TiO2 photo-assisted bacterial inactivation in water and 2) Coupling of photochemical and biological processes for pollutant degradation. He has been involved in ten African, South American and European international research projects. He has been Swiss representative in COST program 540.
Jean-Louis ScartezziniDirecteur du Laboratoire d'Energie Solaire et de Physique du Bâtiment à l'EPFL (1994-présent); Fondateur & Directeur de l'Institut des Infrastructures, des Ressources et de l'Environnement à l'ENAC (2002-2009); Fondateur & Directeur du Programme Doctoral en Environnement de l'EPFL (2002-2009); Co-Directeur de l'Institut des Techniques du Bâtiment de l'EPFL (1994-1997); Professeur Associé de Physique du Bâtiment à l'EPFL (1994-1997); Professeur Associé de Physique du Bâtiment à l'Université de Genève (1990-1997); Chef de Groupe & Chercheur associé au Laboratoire d'Energie Solaire et de Physique du Bâtiment de l'EPFL (1981-1989); Chercheur associé au Groupe de Recherche en Energie Solaire de l'EPFL (1981-1989); Chercheur associé à l'Institut de Géophysique Appliquée de l'Université de Lausanne (1980-1981).
Mihai Adrian IonescuD'origine et de nationalités roumaine et suisse, Mihai-Adrian Ionescu est né en 1965. Après le doctorat en Physique des Composants à Semiconducteurs de lInstitut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, M. Ionescu a travaillé comme chercheur post-doctoral au LETI-CEA Grenoble, sur la caractérisation des diélectriques low-k pour les technologies submicroniques CMOS. Après une courte période au sein du CNRS, comme chargé de recherche 1ere Classe il a effectué un séjour post-doctoral au Center for Integrated Systems, Stanford University, USA. Actuellement il est Professeur Nanoélectronique à lEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
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.
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.
