Summer Saud IslamSummer Islam, ARB AADipl (hons) is a doctoral fellow at the RIOT lab, EPFL ENAC-IA, where her research project ‘Ground Work’ explores the potential for a decarbonised built environment which prioritises ecosystems over industry. Her work investigates the political ecology of construction materials, with a particular focus on the environmental implications of scaling the use of regenerative materials in housing retrofit. She is also an architect and director of Material Cultures, an interdisciplinary not-for
Jack Richard WilliamsTeaching & PhD Courses Negotiation techniques MGT-466 This course is designed to give you a practical, hands-on opportunity to learn the basics of negotiating, self leadership and the impact of culture. Strategies and techniques are presented and practiced that will enable you to develop your skills and become a confident negotiator.
Bertrand Henri FincoeurTeaching & PhD Courses Sustainable Food: production, health & society HUM-120(a) The course presents various issues related to sustainable food: production, food security, nutrition and health, social and cultural issues. The interdisciplinary approach integrates social sciences and engineering sciences and introduces group work and scientific methodology.
Giuseppina LenzoTeaching & PhD Courses Ancient Mediterranean: Love, war and death HUM-314 The course explores the myths and the main texts of ancient cultures (Biblical World, Greece, Rome, Egypt). Exploring their meanings, their receptions helps us to better understand the heterogeneous nature of our own culture.
Ruth EbachTeaching & PhD Courses Ancient Mediterranean: gods, heroes and monsters HUM-237 The course explores the myths and founding texts of ancient cultures (the biblical world, Greece, Rome, Egypt). By exploring their meanings and how they have been received, it aims to unfold a history of the imagination that helps us better understand the diverse nature of our own culture.
Steven EichenbergerTeaching & PhD Courses Understanding modern Switzerland I HUM-422 This course provides a general introduction to Swiss history, its culture, its economy and its political system since 1848 until today. Understanding modern Switzerland II HUM-465 Based on the knowledge acquired during the fall semester course (Understanding modern Switzerland I), students are asked to work by group of 3-4 students and prepare a paper on a topic previously discussed with the teachers.
Matteo CapponiTeaching & PhD Courses Ancient Mediterranean: bringing myths up to date HUM-339 In the form of group projects, the course explores the founding texts of ancient cultures (Ancient Near East, Greece, Rome, Egypt).At the end of the semester, the groups present their work in a fun and educational way. Ancient Mediterranean: gods, heroes and monsters HUM-237 The course explores the myths and founding texts of ancient cultures (the biblical world, Greece, Rome, Egypt). By exploring
Serge André Dominique RezziTeaching & PhD Courses Nutrition: from molecules to health BIO-441 The course addresses methods/technologies to study how nutrition affects biological and pathophysiological processes. It provides an overview of molecular phenotyping of individuals and key aspects to perform clinical investigations, covers nutrigenomics, genetics, micronutrients, microbiota. Sustainable Food: production, health & society HUM-120(a) The course presents various issues related to sustainable foo
Constantinos MarcouConstantinos Marcou (London, 1988) is a British Cypriot writer, architect, and urban designer based in Larnaca, Cyprus. He studied Architecture at the University of Cyprus, graduating with excellence, and later completed a Master’s degree in Urban Design at UCL, supported by a state scholarship, under the mentorship of Luca Galofaro and Davide Sacconi.After his studies, he joined a local architectural magazine as an editor, where he explored the syntactic and literary dimensions of architecture. There, he w
Laurence DanguyExpertise
History of European Art, 19th–21st CenturiesCultural History, 19th–21st Centuries
Laurence Danguy studied art history, history and archaeology at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). She also studied management sciences at the University of Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne (MBA – IAE Paris). In 2006, she completed her PhD in History and Art Sciences as part of a joint supervision arrangement between the EHESS and the University of Konstanz (
Laurin Paul Rudolf BaumgardtLaurin Baumgardt is an urban anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher investigating architectural productions and building politics in South Africa. He received his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at Rice University. Funded by awards from the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation, his long-term ethnographic research focuses on housing design and building politics, infrastructure and development, and urban activism within the context of Cape Town’s entrenched socio-spatial segregation.
Mathieu HuruguenTeaching & PhD Courses Algèbre linéaire et géométrie (pour MAN) PREPA-032(a) We present the fundamental notions of linear algebra in the geometric context where they emerged. We will therefore emphasize the dimensions 2 and 3, and insist on the visualisation of classical objects and operations in the plane and in the 3D space. Analysis II (for CMS) PREPA-005(a) This class focus on the studies of special functions : trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions. Anal
Yves PedrazziniYves Pedrazzini is MER / Senior Scientist in the Laboratory of Urban Sociology (LaSUR), Faculty of Natural, Architectural and Build Environment (ENAC) of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL). For more than 20 years, he analyses urban dynamics, social practices, urban cultures, violence and insecurity phenomena, in North and South countries. In 1987, he began ethnographical studies of youth armed gangs in Latin-American slums, developing innovative qualitative methods to make them real protagonists of the research process. Since 1997, Yves Pedrazzini added to his urban experience in Latin America (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Venezuela) new expertise of African urban contexts (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Senegal). He published many books and articles on urban violence and Security/insecurity issues, from a sociological and anthropological point of view.
Johan AuwerxJohan Auwerx is Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he occupies the Nestle Chair in Energy Metabolism. Dr. Auwerx has been using molecular physiology and systems genetics to understand metabolism in health, aging and disease. Much of his work focused on understanding how diet, exercise and hormones control metabolism through changing the expression of genes by altering the activity of transcription factors and their associated cofactors. His work was instrumental for the development of agonists of nuclear receptors - a particular class of transcription factors - into drugs, which now are used to treat high blood lipid levels, fatty liver, and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Auwerx was amongst the first to recognize that transcriptional cofactors, which fine-tune the activity of transcription factors, act as energy sensors/effectors that influence metabolic homeostasis. His research validated these cofactors as novel targets to treat metabolic diseases, and spurred the clinical use of natural compounds, such as resveratrol, as modulators of these cofactor pathways.
Johan Auwerx was elected as a member of EMBO in 2003 and is the recipient of a dozen of international scientific prizes, including the Danone International Nutrition Award, the Oskar Minkowski Prize, and the Morgagni Gold Medal. His work is highly cited by his peers with a h-factor of over 100. He is an editorial board member of several journals, including Cell Metabolism, Molecular Systems Biology, The EMBO Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, Cell, and Science. Dr. Auwerx co-founded a handful of biotech companies, including Carex, PhytoDia, and most recently Mitobridge, and has served on several scientific advisory boards.
Dr. Auwerx received both his MD and PhD in Molecular Endocrinology at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. He was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Eugen Brühwilerbirth date: 19.11.1958 nationality: Swiss (native from Dussnang, Canton of Thurgau) Education : - July 1988 : doctoral degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland with a thesis entitled Fracture mechanics of dam concrete subjected to quasi-static and seismic loading conditions - December 1983 : civil engineering diploma (university degree) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland Professional Experience : - Since 1st April 1995 : Professor of Structural Engineering at EPFL and Head of the Laboratory of Maintenance, Construction and Safety for Civil Structures (MCS) (often considered being the first chair worldwide devoted exclusively to existing civil structures). - 1991-94 Project Manager and structural engineer with the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Division of Bridges and Structures, Zurich: Monitoring and maintenance of bridges and structures, Project manager and checking engineer for the construction of new bridges and rehabilitation of existing bridges. - 1989/90 Research associate at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA : Fracture mechanics of concrete and fracture of concrete dams. - 1986-88 Doctoral student at EPFL-LMC (Building Materials, Prof. Wittmann) : Fracture mechanics of concrete, fracture of concrete dams under seismic loading - 1984/85 Research engineer at EPFL-ICOM (Steel Structures, Prof. Badoux and Prof. Hirt) : Fatigue behaviour and fracture mechanics of riveted bridges
Francesco MondadaDr. Mondada received his M.Sc. in micro-engineering in 1991 and his Doctoral degree in 1997 at EPFL. During his thesis he co-founded the company K-Team, being both CEO and president of the company for about 5 years. He is one of the three main developers of the Khepera robot, considered as a standard in bio-inspired robotics and used by more than 1,000 universities and research centers worldwide. Fully back in research in 2000 and after a short period at CALTECH, he participated to the SWARM-BOTS project as the main developer of the s-bot robot platform, which was ranked on position 39 in the list of The 50 Best Robots Ever (fiction or real) by the Wired Journal in 2006. The SWARM-BOTS project was selected as FET-IST success story by the EU commission. He is author of more than 100 papers in the field of bio-inspired robotics and system level robot design. He is co-editor of several international conference proceedings. In November 2005 he received the EPFL Latsis University prize for his contributions to bio-inspired robotics. In 2011 he received the "Crédit Suisse Award for Best Teaching" from EPFL and in 2012 the "polysphère" award from the students as best teacher in the school of engineering. His interests include the development of innovative mechatronic solutions for mobile and modular robots, the creation of know-how for future embedded applications, and making robot platforms more accessible for education, research, and industrial development.
Isabella Di LenardoPh.D. in Theories and Art History. Isabella di Lenardo is senior scientist in Digital Humanities and Urban History. Her research activity is focused on digital tools and methods applied to Urban History. She is an expert in ancient cartography, city representations, cadastral sources interpreted through digital modeling, extraction and analysis systems.She's also interested in network analysis questioning the production and circulation of artistic and architectural knowledge in Europe XVIth – XVIIIth centuries in particular on North-South relationships and influences. The development of collaboration projects with European institutions and the activity carried out on various initiatives supported by the European Commission have allowed her to acquire specialism in the field of science applied to heritage, developing in particular specific skills for the enhancement of Cultural Heritage through digital tools. She leads projects in collaboration with Bibliothèque national de France (Paris), Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (Paris), Ecole nationale des chartes (Paris), Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Centre Allemand d’Histoire de l’Art (Paris), Musée du Louvre, Archives Nationales de Paris, Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, Réunion des Musées Nationaux. She supervised all the urban modeling simulations for the Venice Time Machine project and acted as content curator for all the exhibitions (Venice Biennale, Grand Palais-Paris, Datasquare - ArtLab-Lausanne, Museo Correr-Venice). She was Head of “Replica” project : digitizing 1 million photos of artworks in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice) and visual patterns extraction through a search engine for visual similarities. She has a Ph.D in Art History and also studied Archaeology and Urban Studies. She has published essays and articles about Venetian Art and Urban History and participated in many Art exhibitions in European museums. She coordinated summer schools and workshops about Digital Tools for Art History and Urban History. She attended conferences on digital methods for History in universities and patrimonial institutions.
Rémi Guillaume PetitpierreTeaching & PhDDigital urban history: Lausanne Time Machine HUM-450, HUM-454 - Teaching assistant. Website
Martin Alois RohrmeierTeaching & PhD PhD Students Joris Monnet, Marina Borsodi-Benson, Xinyi Guan, Xiaoxuan Wang, Zeng Ren Past EPFL PhD Students Fabian Claude Moss, Daniel Harasim, Christoph Finkensiep, Johannes Hentschel, Gabriele Cecchetti, Shuxin Meng Courses Digital musicology DH-401 This course will introduce students to the central topics in digital musicology and core theoretical approaches and methods. In the practical part, students will carry out a practical project. Musical theory and creativity
