Christophe BallifChristophe Ballif is director of the Phototovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratoryb) (PV-Lab at the institute of microengineering (IMT) in Neuchâtel (part of the EPFL since 2009). The lab focus is on the science and technology of high efficiency heterojunction crystalline cells,so-called passivating contacts for solar cells, multi-junction solar cells include novel generation Perovskite on innovative optical high speed detector and on various macroelectronics application. It also deals with energy management with a focus on integration of solar electricity into the energy system. The PV-Lab has strongly contributed to technology transfer and industrialization of novel devices and full technology with numerous companies. Christophe Ballif graduated as a physicist from the EPFL in 1994, where he also obtained in 1998 his Phd degree working on novel PV materials. He accomplished his postdoctoral research at NREL (Golden, US) on compound semiconductor solar cells (CIGS and CdTe). He worked then at the Fraunhofer ISE (Ge) on crystalline silicon photovoltaics (monocrystalline and multi-crystalline) until 2003 and then at the EMPA in Thun (CH) before becoming full professor at the University of Neuchâtel IMT in 2004, taking over the chair of Prof. A. Shah. Since 2013, C.Ballif is also the director of the new CSEM PV-Center, also located in Neuchâtel. The CSEM PV-Center is focussing more on industrialisation and technology transfer in the field of solar energy, including solar electricity management and storage. At the core of the CSEM PV-center activities lies several "pilot lines" for various kinds of solar cells manufacturing, with a focus coating technologies, wet chemistry processes for crystalline silicon, metalisation techniques for solar cells, and a platform for developing "ideal packaging solutions and polymers" for PV modules. In addition, joined facitilites between CSEM and EPFL of over 800 m2 are available for modules manufacturing, measuring and accelerated aging. CSEM PV-center has also full team dedicated to storage and energy systems and operates a joined center with BFH in Biel for research on electrochemical storage. He (co-) authored over 500 journal and technical papers, as well as several patents. He is an elected member of the SATW, member of the scientific council of the Swiss AEE, and member of the board of the EPFL Energy center. In 2016, he recieved the Becquerel prize for his contributions to the field of high efficiency photovoltaics.
Tobias KippenbergTobias J. Kippenberg is Full Professor of Physics at EPFL and leads the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurement. He obtained his BA at the RWTH Aachen, and MA and PhD at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech in Pasadena, USA). From 2005- 2009 he lead an Independent Research Group at the MPI of Quantum Optics, and is at EPFL since. His research interest are the Science and Applications of ultra high Q microcavities; in particular with his research group he discovered chip-scale Kerr frequency comb generation (Nature 2007, Science 2011) and observed radiation pressure backaction effects in microresonators that now developed into the field of cavity optomechanics (Science 2008). Tobias Kippenberg is alumni of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”. For his invention of “chip-scale frequency combs” he received he Helmholtz Price for Metrology (2009) and the EFTF Young Investigator Award (2010). For his research on cavity optomechanics, he received the EPS Fresnel Prize (2009). In addition he is recipient of the ICO Prize in Optics (2014), the Swiss National Latsis award (2015), the German Wilhelm Klung Award (2015) and ZEISS Research Award (2018). He is fellow of the APS and OSA, and listed since 2014 in the Thomas Reuters highlycited.com in the domain of Physics. EDUCATION 2009: Habilitation (Venia Legendi) in Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München 2004: PhD, California Institute of Technology (Advisor Professor Kerry Vahala) 2000: Master of Science (Applied Physics), California Institute of Technology 1998: BA in Physics, Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), Germany 1998: BA in Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), Germany ACADEMIC POSITIONS 2013 - present: Full Professor EPFL 2010 - 2012: Associate Professor EPFL 2008 - 2010: Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne 2007 - present: Marie Curie Excellent Grant Team Leader, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Division of Prof.T.W. Hänsch) 2005 - present: Leader of an Independent Junior Research Group, Max Planck Institute 2005- present: Habilitant (Prof. Hänsch) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) 2005-2006: Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for the Physics of Information, California Institute of Technology 2000-2004: Graduate Research Assistant, California Institute of Technology PRIZES AND HONORS: ZEISS Research Award 2018 Fellow of the APS 2016 Klung-Wilhelmy Prize 2015 Swiss Latsis Prize 2014 Selected Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in Physics, 2014/2015 ICO Prize, 2013 EFTF Young Scientist Award (for "invention of microresonator based frequency combs") 2010 Fresnel Prize of the European Physical Society (for contributions to Optomechanics) 2009 Helmholtz Prize for Metrology (for invention of the monolithic frequency comb) 2009 1st Prize winner of the EU Contest for Young Scientists, Helsinki, Finland. Sept. 1996 Jugend forscht 1st Physics Prize at the German National Science Contest May 1996 FELLOWSHIPS Fellow of the German National Merit Foundation ("Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes") 1998-2002 Member of the Daimler-Chysler-Fellowship-Organization 1998-2002 Dr. Ulderup Fellowship 1999-2000 RESEARCH INTERESTS Experimental and theoretical research in photonics, notably high Q optical microcavities and their use in cavity quantum optomechanics and frequency metrology PUBLICATIONS AND OFTEN CITED METRICS*: >70 Publications in peer reviewed journals Researcher Google Profile: http://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=PRCbG2kAAAAJ&hl=en h-Index 54 (Google scholar H: 64, >25,000 citations) Thomson Reuters/Claravite List of Highly Cited Researchers (2014,2015,2016,2017) careful in its use: https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201411/backpage.cfm KEY PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS: A. Ghadimi, et al. Elastic strain engineering for ultra high Q nanomechanical oscillators Science, (2018) Trocha, et al. Ultrafast distance measurements using soliton microresonator frequency combs Science, Vol. 359 (2018) [joint work with C. Koos] Pablo-Marin et al. Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications Nature (2017) [joint work with C. Koos] V. Brasch, et al. Photonic chip-based optical frequency comb using soliton Cherenkov radiation. Science, vol. 351, num. 6271 (2015) Aspelmeyer, M., Kippenberg, T. J. & Marquardt, F. Cavity optomechanics. Reviews of Modern Physics 86, 1391-1452, (2014) Wilson, D. J. et al. Measurement and control of a mechanical oscillator at its thermal decoherence rate. Nature (2014). Verhagen, E., Deleglise, S., Weis, S., Schliesser, A. & Kippenberg, T. J. Quantum-coherent coupling of a mechanical oscillator to an optical cavity mode. Nature 482, 63-67 (2012). Kippenberg, T. J., Holzwarth, R. & Diddams, S. A. Microresonator-based optical frequency combs. Science 332, 555-559, (2011). Weis, S. et al. Optomechanically induced transparency. Science 330, 1520-1523 (2010). Kippenberg, T. J. & Vahala, K. J. Cavity optomechanics: back-action at the mesoscale. Science 321, 1172-1176, (2008). Del'Haye, P. et al. Optical frequency comb generation from a monolithic microresonator. Nature (2007) Schliesser, A., DelHaye, P., Nooshi, N., Vahala, K. & Kippenberg, T. Radiation Pressure Cooling of a Micromechanical Oscillator Using Dynamical Backaction. Physical Review Letters 97, (2006). Claudio BruschiniClaudio Bruschini holds an MSc in high energy physics from the University of Genova and a PhD in Applied Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He started his career with INFN (Italy, 1993), in the WA92 CERN collaboration (particle physics), and then moved to CERN as a Fellow in the European GP-MIMD2 project, attached to the NA48 collaboration (particle physics, parallel programming, 1994-1995). He then started his close collaboration with EPFL, first in the DeTeC (Demining Technology Center) project (sensors for landmine detection/humanitarian demining, 1996-1997). After DeTeC's end, he started the first of a series of fruitful collaborations with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) on humanitarian demining related R&D (1998). This was followed by the EUDEM survey project (The European Union in Humanitarian Demining, 1998), the EUDEM2 three year EC sponsored support measure (www.eudem.info, 2001-2004), and the DELVE support action (www.delve.vub.ac.be, 2007). In parallel he started working within the EPFL's AQUA group (Advanced Quantum Architectures, Edoardo Charbon), on topics as diverse as ultrasonic sensors for in-air application, optical 3D and high speed 2D sensing, sensor networks, or tracking/motion capture systems, in particular for the preparation of research projects. This culminated in the European MEGAFRAME (www.megaframe.eu, FP6, 2006-2010, SPAD arrays and related in-pixel time stamping electronics in deep submicron CMOS technology) and SPADnet (www.spadnet.eu, FP7, 2010-2014, networked SPAD arrays for Positron Emission Tomography) projects, coordinated by EPFL-AQUA. As from 2009 he also worked with Dario Floreano on the management of the CURVACE Curved Artificial Compound Eyes FP7 project (www.curvace.org), coordinated by EPFL-LIS. He was also active with CHUV (Lausanne University Hospital) within EndoTOFPET-US (endoscopic PET) as well as on a CTI project devoted to the development of a new hand-held standalone tool for tracer-guided medical procedures. In 2014 he had also the pleasure of joining the EPFL ICLAB of Christian Enz during its ramp-up phase, collaborating on device related topics (SNF GigaRadMOST) and biomedical R&D (NanoTera WiseSkin). Claudio is now fully with EPFL’s Advanced Quantum Architecture (AQUA). He has also been active as independent scientific consultant, under the label CBR Scientific Consulting, on the preparation of (European) R&D project proposals and the execution of individual studies, and worked in 2006 for a local start-up as operations manager and R&D advisor.... but this is another story. An unauthorized early biography is available at http://lami.epfl.ch/team/claudiob/... Dario FloreanoProf. Dario Floreano is director of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Since 2010, he is the founding director of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Robotics, a research program that brings together more than 20 labs across Switzerland. Prof. Floreano holds an M.A. in Vision, an M.S. in Neural Computation, and a PhD in Robotics. He has held research positions at Sony Computer Science Laboratory, at Caltech/JPL, and at Harvard University. His main research interests are Robotics and A.I. at the convergence of biology and engineering. Prof. Floreano made pioneering contributions to the fields of evolutionary robotics, aerial robotics, and soft robotics. He served in numerous advisory boards and committees, including the Future and Emerging Technologies division of the European Commission, the World Economic Forum Agenda Council, the International Society of Artificial Life, the International Neural Network Society, and in the editorial committee of several scientific journals. In addition, he helped spinning off two drone companies (senseFly.com and Flyability.com) and a non-for-profit portal on robotics and A.I. (RoboHub.org). Books
Manuale sulle Reti Neurali, il Mulino (in Italian), 1996 (first edition), 2006 (second edition)Evolutionary Robotics, MIT Press, 2000
Bio-Inspired Artificial Intelligence, MIT Press, 2008
Flying Insects and Robots, Springer Verlag, 2010
Hans Peter HerzigDr. Hans Peter Herzig is Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Past President of the European Optical Society (EOS). His current research interests include refractive and diffractive micro-optics, nano-scale optics and optical MEMS.
Hans Peter Herzig received his diploma in physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1978. From 1978 to 1982 he was a scientist with the Optics Development Department of Kern in Aarau, Switzerland, working in lens design and optical testing. In 1983, he became a graduate research assistant with the Applied Optics Group at the Institute of Microtechnology of the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, working in the field of holographic optical elements. In 1987, he received his PhD degree in optics. From 1989 to 2001 he was head of the micro-optics research group in Neuchâtel. From 2002 to 2008 he was a full professor and head of the Applied Optics Laboratory at the University of Neuchâtel. Professor Herzig joined the faculty at EPFL in January 2009.
He is member of OSA, IEEE Photonics Society and Fellow of EOS. 2009-2010 he was President of the European Optical Society (EOS), 2001-2009 Vice-President of the Swiss Society of Optics and Microscopy and 2012-2014 Vice-President of ICO. Dr. Herzig is in the editorial board of different scientific journals (JM3, Optical Review, JEOS). He served as Conference Chairman for international conferences of EOS, IEE, IEEE/LEOS, OSA and SPIE; and as Guest Editor of three special issues of IEEE, OSA journals. He is editor of a well-known book on micro-optics (published in English and Chinese), author of 14 book chapters, over 150 peer reviewed articles and 300 conference proceedings.
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral2014 Associate Professor at the Institut des Matériaux, EPFL
2008 Assistant Professor Tenure Track at the Institut des Matériaux, EPFL
2009 Habilitation in Physics, Technische Universität München
2005-2010 Marie Curie Excellence Grant Team Leader at Walter Schottky Institut, Technische Universität München, on leave from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France)
2004-2005 Visiting Scientist at the California Institute of Technology, on leave from CNRS; Senior Scientist and co-founder of Aonex Technologies (a startup company for large area layer transfer of InP and Ge on foreign substrates for the main application of multi-junction solar cells)
2003 Permanent Research Fellow at CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
2001-2002 Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology
Study of wafer bonding and hydrogen-induced exfoliation processes for integration of mismatched materials in views of photovoltaic applications
Sponsor: Professor Harry A. Atwater
1998-2001 PhD in Materials Science, Ecole Polytechnique
Study of polymorphous silicon: growth mechanisms, optical and structural properties. Application to Solar Cells and Thin Film Transistors
Advisor: Pere Roca i Cabarrocas
1997-1998 Diplôme dEtudes Approfondis (D.E.A.) in Materials Science at Université Paris XI, France .
1993-1997 BA in Physics at Universitat de Barcelona
Pierre VandergheynstPierre Vandergheynst received the M.S. degree in physics and the Ph.D. degree in mathematical physics from the Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, in 1995 and 1998, respectively. From 1998 to 2001, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Signal Processing Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland. He was Assistant Professor at EPFL (2002-2007), where he is now a Full Professor of Electrical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Computer and Communication Sciences. As of 2015, Prof. Vandergheynst serves as EPFL’s Vice-Provost for Education. His research focuses on harmonic analysis, sparse approximations and mathematical data processing in general with applications covering signal, image and high dimensional data processing, computer vision, machine learning, data science and graph-based data processing. He was co-Editor-in-Chief of Signal Processing (2002-2006), Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (2007-2011), the flagship journal of the signal processing community and currently serves as Associate Editor of Computer Vision and Image Understanding and SIAM Imaging Sciences. He has been on the Technical Committee of various conferences, serves on the steering committee of the SPARS workshop and was co-General Chairman of the EUSIPCO 2008 conference. Pierre Vandergheynst is the author or co-author of more than 70 journal papers, one monograph and several book chapters. He has received two IEEE best paper awards. Professor Vandergheynst is a laureate of the Apple 2007 ARTS award and of the 2009-2010 De Boelpaepe prize of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium.
Niels QuackProf. Dr. Niels Quack received the M.Sc. degree from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2005, and the Dr.Sc. degree from Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland, in 2010. From 2011 to 2015, he was Postdoctoral Researcher and Visiting Scholar with the Integrated Photonics Laboratory, Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. From 2014 to 2015, he was Senior MEMS Engineer with Sercalo Microtechnology, Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He is currently an SNSF Assistant Professor with Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland. He has authored and co-authored more than 50 papers in leading technical journals and conferences. His research interests include photonic micro and nanosystems, with an emphasis on diamond photonics and silicon photonic MEMS. He is Steering Committee Member of the IEEE International Conference on Optical MEMS and Nanophotonics (OMN) and served as General Chair of the IEEE OMN 2018 and the Latsis Symposium 2019 on Diamond Photonics. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, Member of The Optical Society (OSA) and life member of SPIE.
Mohammad Amin ShokrollahiAmin Shokrollahi has worked on a variety of topics, including coding theory, computational number theory and algebra, and computational/algebraic complexity theory. He is best known for his work on iterative decoding algorithms of graph based codes, an area in which he holds a number of granted and pending patents. He is the co-inventor of Tornado codes, and the inventor of Raptor codes. His codes have been standardized and successfully deployed in practical areas dealing with data transmission over lossy networks.
Prior to joining EPFL, Amin Shokrollahi has held positions as the chief scientist of Digital Fountain, member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories, senior researcher at the International Computer Science Insitute in Berkeley, and assistant professor at the department of computer science of the university of Bonn. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, and he was awarded the Best Paper Award of the IEEE IT Society in 2002 for his work on iterative decoding of LDPC code, the IEEE Eric Sumner Award in 2007 for the development of Fountain Codes, and the joint Communication Society/Information Theory Society best paper award of 2007 for his paper on Raptor Codes.
Demetri PsaltisResearch group
Teaching & PhD PhD Students Victoria Fay, Colin Nikhil Christian Past EPFL PhD Students Wuzhou Song, Alexandre Goy, Julien Cuennet, Ioannis Papadopoulos, Xin Yang, Grégoire Pierre Jean Laporte, Thomas Jean Victor Marie Lanvin, Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini Hashemi, Nicolino Stasio, Morteza Hasani Shoreh, Marilisa Romito, Pooria Hadikhani, Eirini Kakkava, Joowon Lim, Giulia Panusa, Ahmed Bassam Sayed Ayoub Mohamed Ayoub, Amirhossein Saba, Niyazi Ulas Dinç Past EPFL PhD
