Vassily HatzimanikatisDr. Vassily Hatzimanikatis is currently Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Lausanne, Switzerland. Vassily received a PhD and an MS in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and his Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the University of Patras, in Greece. After the completion of his doctoral studies, he held a research group leader position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland. Prior to joining EPFL, Vassily worked for three years in DuPont, Cargill, and Cargill Dow, and he has been assistant professor at Northwestern University, at Illinois, USA.
Vassilys research interests are in the areas of computational systems biology, biotechnology, and complexity. He is associate editor of the journals Biotechnology & Bioengineering, Metabolic Engineering and Integrative Biology, and he serves on the editorial advisory board of the journals Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, and Industrial Biotechnology. He has written over 70 technical publications and he is co-inventor in three patents and patent applications.
Vassily is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2010), he was a DuPont Young Professor (2001-2004), and he has also received the Jay Bailey Young Investigator Award in Metabolic Engineering (2000), and the ACS Elmar Gaden Award (2011).
François MaréchalPh D. in engineering Chemical process engineer
Researcher and lecturer in the field of computer aided process and energy systems engineering.
Lecturer in the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and environmental sciences engineering in EPFL.
I'm responsible for the Minor in Energy of EPFL and I'm involved in 3 projects of the Competence Center in Energy and Mobility (2nd generation biofuel, Wood SOFC, and gas turbine development with CO2 mitigation) in which i'm contributing to the energy conversion system design and optimisation.
Short summary of my scientific carrer
After a graduation in chemical engineering from the University of Liège, I have obtained a Ph. D. from the University of Liège in the LASSC laboratory of Prof. Kalitventzeff (former president of the European working party on computer aided process engineering). This laboratory was one of the pioneering laboratory in the field of Computer Aided Process Engineering.
In the group of Professor Kalitventzeff, I have worked on the development and the applications of data reconciliation, process modelling and optimisation techniques in the chemical process industry, my experience ranges from nuclear power stations to chemical plants. In the LASSC, I have been responsible from the developments in the field of rational use of energy in the industry. My first research topic has been the methodological development of process integration techniques, combining the use of pinch based methods and of mathematical programming: e.g. for the design of multiperiod heat exchanger networks or Mixed integer non linear programming techniques for the optimal management of utility systems. Fronted with applications in the industry, my work then mainly concentrated on the optimal integration of utility systems considering not only the energy requirements but the cost of the energy requirements and the energy conversion systems. I developed methods for analysing and integrating the utility system, the steam networks, combustion (including waste fuel), gas turbines or other advanced energy conversion systems (cogeneration, refrigeration and heat). The techniques applied uses operation research tools like mixed integer linear programming and exergy analysis. In order to evaluate the results of the utility integration, a new graphical method for representing the integration of the utility systems has been developed. By the use of MILP techniques, the method developed for the utility integration has been extended to handled site scale problems, to incorporate environmental constraints and reduce the water usage. This method (the Effect Modelling and Optimisation method) has been successfully applied to the chemical plants industry, the pulp and paper industry and the power plant. Instead of focusing on academic problems, I mainly developed my research based on industrial applications that lead to valuable and applicable patented results. Recently the methods developed have been extended to realise the thermoeconomic optimisation of integrated systems like fuel cells. My present R&D work concerns the application of multi-objective optimisation strategies in the design of processes and integrated energy conversion systems.
Since 2001, Im working in the Industrial Energy Systems Laboratory (LENI) of Ecole Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where Im leading the R&D activities in the field of Computer Aided Analysis and Design of Industrial Energy Systems with a major focus on sustainable energy conversion system development using thermo-economic optimisation methodologies. A part from the application and the development of process integration techniques, that remains my major field of expertise, the applications concern :
Rational use of water and energy in Industrial processes and industrial production sites : projects with NESTLE, EDF, VEOLIA and Borregaard (pulp and paper).Energy conversion and process design : biofuels from waste biomass (with GASNAT, EGO and PSI), water dessalination and waste water treatment plant (VEOLIA), power plant design (ALSTOM), Energy conversion from geothermal sources (BFE). Integrated energy systems in urban areas : together with SCANE and SIG (GE) and IEA annexe 42 for micro-cogeneration systems.
I as well contributed to the definition of the 2000 Watt society and to studies concerning the emergence of green technologies on the market in the frame of the Alliance for Global Sustainability.
Daniel FavratDaniel Favrat got his Master degree in Mechanical Engineering from EPFL in 1972 and his PhD also from EPFL. He then spent 12 years in industrial research laboratories in Canada (Esso Canada) and Switzerland (CERAC: Centre Européen de Recherche Atlas Copco). From 1988 to 2013, he was full professor and director of the Industrial Energy Systems Laboratory (LENI) at EPFL. During that period he was successively director of the Institute of Energy and director of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. From August 2013 he works at EPFL Energy Center first as director ad interim and now as director technologies.
His research fields include systemic analyses accounting for energy, environment and economics (so-called environomic optimisation) and advanced conversion systems for a more rational use of energy (heat pumps &ORC, engines, fuel cells, power plants, etc).
He is a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences and of the National Academy of Technology in France. He has also an active participation in the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) as a member of the executive committee and vice-chair of the energy committee. He is associate editor of the journal "Energy" and of International Journal of thermodynamics. He is the author of several books on thermodynamics and energy systems analysis. He is also affiliate professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.
Michele CeriottiMichele Ceriotti received his Ph.D. in Physics from ETH Zürich in 2010. He spent three years in Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow at Merton College. Since 2013 he leads the laboratory for Computational Science and Modeling in the Institute of Materials at EPFL. His research revolves around the atomic-scale modelling of materials, based on the sampling of quantum and thermal fluctuations and on the use of machine learning to predict and rationalize structure-property relations. He has been awarded the IBM Research Forschungspreis in 2010, the Volker Heine Young Investigator Award in 2013, an ERC Starting Grant in 2016, and the IUPAP C10 Young Scientist Prize in 2018.
Philippe GilletPhilippe GILLET completed his undergraduate studies in Earth Science at Ecole normale supérieure de la rue dUlm (Paris). In 1983 he obtained a PhD in Geophysics at Université de Paris VII and joined Université de Rennes I as an assistant. Having obtained a State Doctorate in 1988, he became a Professor at this same university, which he left in 1992 to join Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon.
The first part of his research career was devoted to the formation of mountain ranges particularly of the Alps. In parallel, he developed experimental techniques (diamond anvil cells) to recreate the pressure and temperature prevailing deep inside planets in the lab. These experiments aim at understanding what materials make up the unreachable depths of planets in the solar system.
In 1997, Gillet started investigating extraterrestrial matter. He was involved in describing meteorites coming from Mars, the moon or planets which have disappeared today and explaining how these were expelled from their original plant by enormous shocks which propelled them to Earth. He also participated in the NASA Stardust program and contributed to identify comet grains collected from the tail of Comet Wild 2 and brought back to Earth. These grains represent the initial minerals in our solar system and were formed over 4.5 billion years ago. He has also worked on the following subjects:
Interactions between bacteria and minerals.
Solid to glass transition under pressure.
Experimental techniques: laser-heated diamond anvil cell, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction with synchrotron facilities, electron microscopy.
Philippe Gillet is also active in science and education management. He was the Director of the CNRS Institut National des Sciences de lUnivers (France), the President of the French synchrotron facility SOLEIL and of the French National Research Agency (2007), and the Director of Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon. Before joining EPFL he was the Chief of Staff of the French Minister of Higher Education and Research.
Selected 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.
Ljubisa MiskovicLjubisa Miskovic earned his Ph.D. degree in Automatic Control from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) under the co-supervision of Dominique Bonvin and Alireza Karimi, in 2006. He pursued his postdoctoral studies at the Centre for Systems Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Universite Catholique de Louvain with Michel Gevers before moving to the laboratory of Vassily Hatzimanikatis at the EPFL. In 2010, he became a research scientist. His research interests include systems biology, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, data-driven control design, system identification, stochastic processes and estimation theory.
Lyesse LalouiDirector, EPFL Soil Mechanics LaboratoryDirector, EPFL Civil Engineering SectionEditor in Chief, ElsevierMember of the Swiss Academy of Engineering SciencesFounding Partner, Geoeg & MeduSoilActive in academic research in the following institutions: Lausanne, EPFL, Durham, Duke University, Nanjing, Hohai UniversityProfessor Lyesse Laloui teaches at EPFL, where he directs the Soil Mechanics Laboratory as well as the Civil Engineering Section. He is a founding partner of the international engineering company Geoeg, and the start-up MeduSoil. In addition, he is an adjunct professor at Duke University, USA and an advisory professor at Hohai University, China as well as honorary director of the International Joint Research Center for Energy Geotechnics in China.He is the recipient of an Advance ERC grant for his BIO-mediated GEO-material Strengthening project. Editor in Chief of the Elsevier Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment journal, he is a leading scientist in the field of geomechanics and geo-energy. He has written and edited 13 books and published over 320 peer reviewed papers; his work is cited more than 6000 times with an h-index of 39 (Scopus). Two of his papers are among the top 1% in the academic field of Engineering. He has given keynote and invited lectures at more than 40 leading international conferences. He has received several international awards (IACMAG, RM Quigley, Roberval) and delivered honorary lectures (Vardoulakis, Minnesota; G.A. Leonards, Purdue; Kersten, Minnesota). He recently acted as the Chair of the international evaluation panel of Civil and Geological Engineering R&D Units of Portugal.Nov. 2019 For further information visit www.epfl.ch/labs/lms/ ; geoeg.net ; medusoil.com Urs von StockarOriginaire de Zurich, Urs von Stockar est né en1942. Ingénieur chimiste diplômé de l'EPFZ en 1967, il y est ensuite assistant au Laboratoire de chimie technique et, en 1973, soutient sa thèse couronnée par la médaille d'argent de l'EPFZ.
De 1973 à 1976, il travaille au département de génie chimique de l'Université de Californie. Il y enseigne et participe au développement d'un procédé technique pour la conversion biologique de la cellulose en alcool.
En 1977, il est ingénieur chimiste chez Ciba-Geigy. Fin 1977 il est nommé professeur extraordinaire à l'EPFL. Il dirige l'Institut de génie chimique en 1978/79 et en 1989/90. Il est professeur ordinaire en 1982. En 1982/83 et 1993/95, il dirige le Département de chimie. Son enseignement et sa recherche traitent des opérations de transfert de masse et de la biotechnologie, il s'intéresse également aux questions de bioénergétique et de biothermodynamique. Collaborant avec l'UNIL et l'ISREC, son équipe développe des procédés de fabrication d'anticorps monoclônaux spéciaux, capables de protéger les muqueuses humaines. En 1990 il est nommé professeur associé à l'Université de Genève. Il représente la Suisse dans un groupe d'experts de la Fédération européenne de biotechnologie. Après avoir siégé pendant plusieurs années dans son Comité de direction, il a été nommé président de la Fédération Européenne de Biotechnologie pour la période 1996-97. Depuis 1991, il dirige le Comité de coordination suisse pour la biotechnologie.
Diploma in Chemical Eng.-1967-ETHZ, CH
Ph.D.-1972-ETHZ, CH
Postdoc. Fellow-1973-76-Univ. of California, Berkeley, US
John Richard ThomeJohn R. Thome is Professor of Heat and Mass Transfer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland since 1998, where his primary interests of research are two-phase flow and heat transfer, covering both macro-scale and micro-scale heat transfer and enhanced heat transfer. He directs the Laboratory of Heat and Mass Transfer (LTCM) at the EPFL with a research staff of about 18-20 and is also Director of the Doctoral School in Energy. He received his Ph.D. at Oxford University, England in 1978. He is the author of four books: Enhanced Boiling Heat Transfer (1990), Convective Boiling and Condensation, 3rd Edition (1994), Wolverine Engineering Databook III (2004) and Nucleate Boiling on Micro-Structured Surfaces (2008). He received the ASME Heat Transfer Division's Best Paper Award in 1998 for a 3-part paper on two-phase flow and flow boiling heat transfer published in the Journal of Heat Transfer. He has received the J&E Hall Gold Medal from the U.K. Institute of Refrigeration in February, 2008 for his extensive research contributions on refrigeration heat transfer and more recently the 2010 ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award. He has published widely on the fundamental aspects of microscale and macroscale two-phase flow and heat transfer and on enhanced boiling and condensation heat transfer.
Jean-Philippe AnsermetJean-Philippe Ansermet was born March 1, 1957 in Lausanne (legal origin Vaumarcus, NE). He obtained a diploma as physics engineer of EPFL in 1980. He went on to get a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where, from 1985 to 1987, he persued as post-doc with Prof. Slichter his research on catalysis by solid state NMR studies of molecules bound to the surface of catalysts. From 1987 to 1992 he worked at the materials research center of Ciba-Geigy, on polymers for microelectronics, composites, dielectrics and organic charge transfer complexes. In March 1992, as professor of experimental physics, he developed a laboratory on the theme of nanostructured materials and turned full professor in 1995. Since 1992, he teaches classical mechanics, first to future engineering students, since 2004 to physics majors. Since 2000, he teaches thermodynamics also, to the same group of students. He offers a graduate course in spintronics, and another on spin dynamics. His research activities concern the fabrication and properties of magnetic nanostructures produced by electrodeposition. His involvement since the early days of spintronics have allowed him to gain recognition for his work on giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR), magnetic relaxation of single nanostructures, and was among the leading groups demonstrating magnetization reversal by spin-polarized currents. Furthermore, his group uses nuclear magnetic resonance , on the one hand as means of investigation of surfaces and electrodes, on the other hand, as a local probe of the electronic properties of complex ferromagnetic oxides.
Henrik Moodysson RønnowHenrik Ronnow was born in Copenhagen in 1974. He was awarded his master's degree in physics in 1996. Having earned his doctorate in 2000, he left Denmark for training at the Laue-Langevin Institute in Grenoble. Between 2000 and 2002, he held a Marie Curie Fellowship hosted by the Atomic Energy Commission. In 2002 he was appointed as an invited researcher at the NEC Laboratories in Princeton, then at the University of Chicago's James Franck Institute. In 2003, he became a researcher at the Laboratory for Neutron Scattering (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) and at the Paul Scherrer Institute. In 2007 he was appointed Assistant Professor at Ecole Polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL). In 2012 he was promoted to Associate Professor. Profession 2012- Associate Professor, Laboratory for Quantum Magnetism, EPFL, Switzerland 2007-2012 Assistant Professor, Laboratory for Quantum Magnetism, EPFL, Switzerland 2003-2006 Scientist, Laboratory for Neutron Scattering, ETH-Zürich & Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland 2002-2003 Visiting Scientist, NEC-Laboratories Inc., Princeton, and James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, USA 2000-2002 Marie Curie Fellowship funded by the EU, hosted by Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Grenoble, France 2000 Postdoc, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France 1996 Research assistant, Risø National Laboratory, Denmark Education 2000 Ph.D. in Physics, Risø National Laboratory and University of Copenhagen: Aspects of quantum magnetism in one, two and three dimensions 1996 M.Sc. in Physics, University of Copenhagen: Magnetic properties of holmium-erbium alloys 1995 B.Sc in Mathematics, University of Copenhagen 1994 B.Sc in Physics, University of Copenhagen 1992 High school graduate, Natural Sciences, Scolae Academiae Sorana
Karen ScrivenerDe nationalité anglaise, Karen Scrivener est née en 1958. Au cours de sa carrière, ses travaux et sa recherche traitaient des domaines suivants: Identification du développement microstucturale pendant l'hydratation du ciment. Elaboration d'une approche multitechnique pour étudier la microstucture des ciments et bétons, avec accent sur la quantification par analyse des images d'électrons retrodiffusés. Caractérisation de l'auréole de transition de la pâte de ciment autour des granulats. Compréhension des processus de dégardation des bétons, en particulier le gonflement lié à la formation de l'éttringite retardée dans les bétons étuvés.
Paolo De Los RiosPaolo De Los Rios earned his master in Electronic Engineering at the Turin Institute of Technology (Politecnico di Torino) in May 1993. In November 1993 he moved to Trieste, Italy, to enter the PhD program in Theoretical Condensed Matter Theory at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA/ISAS) where he obtained the PhD degree in October 1996 for his work on the statistical physics of disordered systems. After a one year postdoc at the Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, in November 1997 he moved to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, to join the group of Prof. Yi-Cheng Zhang. There he has worked on various applications of statistical physics to complex systems. In September 2000 he has been appointed Assistant Professor in Statistical Physics of Living Matter and Complex Systems at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Since April 2010 he is Associate Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
Jan Van HerleBorn in Antwerp, Belgium. In Switzerland since 1983. Became Swiss citizen in 2004 out of conviction of principles of democracy and bottom-up participation. No double nationality. Village Council Member for 2 five-year mandates in 2006-2016.
1987 : Chemist from Basel University (CH).
1988 : Post-graduate IT diploma from Basel Engineering School.
1989 : Industry internship ABB Baden (CH).
1990-1993 : PhD Thesis EPFL, on Solid Oxide Fuel Cell cathode reaction mechanisms.
1994-1995 : Japanese Postdoctoral Fellowship in Tsukuba, Japan, on ceramic powders.
1995-2000 : Researcher at EPFL, Dpt. Chemistry : project responsible in PPM2 (materials), FP4-BriteEuram, NEDO (Japan), Swiss Gas Union (CH, oxygen membranes).
1998-2000 : Masters in Energy Technology, EPFL.
2000 : Cofounder of HTceramix SA (EPFL spin-off), now based in Yverdon (14 employees). Taken over by SOLIDpower in 2007, now 250 employees with 70 MCHF raised.
2000 : 1st Assistant and lecturer at LENI (STI-IGM) : fuel cell group responsible, projects on biogas (Federal Energy Office), woodgas (CCEM), fuel cell stacking (CTI, FP6, FNS), ceramic separation membranes (COST, FNS), microtubes (STI Seed), stability/lifetime/reliability in fuel cells (Electricité de France, swisselectric research). Currently 4 Ph D theses ongoing, 14 theses concluded, of which 5 colateral with SB and IMX. M.E.R. since Nov 2008.
Total funding raised so far >18 MCHF (50% as main applicant; 30% outside CH; 20% industry).
Scientific output : >135 peer-reviewed publications, >120 conference papers, 40 invited presentations (8 keynotes), >70 granted proposals.
Fluent in 5 languages (Dutch, French, German ( Swiss-german), English, Spanish).
Alexander TagantsevALEXANDER K. TAGANTSEV received the B.S. degree from St. Petersburg State University, in 1974, and Ph.D. degree from Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1982 in solid state physics. Before 1993, he worked in Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, (1991-1993, head of laboratory), and St. Petersburg State Technical University (1991-1993, professor). He joined the ceramics laboratory of EPFL in 1993 where he was leading ( up to 2016) the section for Modeling and theory of Electroceramics. He is also currently engaged as a principle research fellow at Ioffe institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). Tagantsev is a theoretician of a broad domain of expertise from ferroelectricity and phonon physics to electrodynamics of superconductors and quantum optics. He is the author of key results on the theory of microwave dielectrics loss, dielectric polarization in crystalline materials, and relaxor ferroelectricity. He is also known in the field of ferroelectric thin films for elucidating works on the polarization switching and degradation in these systems. He authored or co-authored more than 300 scientific articles and two monograph (on domains in ferroics and tunable film bulk acoustic wave resonators). In 2007, Prof. Tagantsev was entitled to the Honors for lifetime achievement in the field of integrated ferroelectrics by the International Symposium on Integrated Ferroelectrics.
Nicolas GrandjeanNicolas Grandjean received a PhD degree in physics from the University ofNice Sophia Antipolis in 1994 and shortly thereafter joined the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) as a permanent staff member. In 2004, he was appointed tenure-track assistant professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where he created the Laboratory for advanced semiconductors for photonics and electronics. He was promoted to full professor in 2009. He was the director of the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics from 2012 to 2016 and then moved to the University of California at Santa Barbara where he spent 6 months as a visiting professor. Since 2018, he is the head of the School of Physics at the EPFL. He was awarded the Sandoz Family Foundation Grant for Academic Promotion, received the “Nakamura Lecturer” Award in 2010, the "Quantum Devices Award” at the 2017 Compound Semiconductor Week, and “2016 best teacher” award from the EPFL Physics School. His research interests are focused on the physics of nanostructures and III-V nitride semiconductor quantum photonics.
