Claudia Rebeca Binder SignerClaudia R. Binder, a Swiss, Canadian and Colombian citizen, was born in Montreal and spent most of her childhood in Switzerland and Colombia. She studied at ETH Zurich from 1985 to 1996, earning a degree in biochemistry and then a PhD in environmental sciences. After conducting her post-doctoral research at the University of Maryland in the US from 1996 to 1998, she returned to Switzerland and took a position as a senior research scientist at ETH Zurich, studying the interaction between human and environmental systems at the Institute for Natural and Social Science Interface. In 2006, Binder joined the University of Zurich as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, and in 2009 moved to the University of Graz in Austria where she served as a full professor of systems science. In 2011, she took a position at the University of Munich’s Department of Geography as a full professor of human-environment relations.
Binder joined EPFL in March 2016 and set up the Laboratory for Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS) at ENAC; she also holds the La Mobilière Chair on Urban Ecology and Sustainable Living.
Her research involves analyzing, modelling and assessing the transition of urban systems towards sustainability. She looks in particular at how we can better understand the dynamics of urban metabolism, what characterizes a sustainable city, and what drives and hinders transformation processes. She does so by combining knowledge from social, natural and data science. Her research focuses on food, energy, and sustainable living and transport in urban systems.
In Switzerland, Binder was appointed to the Research Council, Programs Division of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in 2016 and serves on the Steering Committee of the SNSF’s National Research Program 71, “Managing Energy Consumption” and the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCER). She is also a member of the Steering Board on Sustainability Research for the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, she was elected as a member of the University Council of the University of Munich (LMU).
At EPFL, Binder is the academic director of Design Together, a cross-disciplinary teaching initiative. She was appointed to the management team of the Energy Center in 2018 and as head of the working group on EPFL’s energy and sustainability strategy in 2019.
Xun LiaoI'm a LCA sustainability consultant, focusing on R&D and applications of integrating LCA with traditional corporate ESG reporting and management, as well as bridging the gap between LCA, Supply chain management (SCM) , risk assessment and business sustainability investment and decision-making.
As a Marie Curie PhD fellow in EPFL, I'm working on sustainability (social/economic/environmental) assessment, design and optimization of different biorefinery concepts.
As a sustainability consultant, I'm researching and developing methodologies and tools for the following field:
- Corporate ESG and sustainability investment
-Assess and manage GHG emissions, Water and land, renewable energy, human health, Biodiversity, social issues
-Materiality, CDP report, GRI and other reporting initiatives
-Competitive advantage through investment in sustainability (ESG) programs
- Strategy, Supply chain management and risk assessment within the framework of Life Cycle thinking
-
Commodity, Supply chain, Operational risks due to regulatory, physical factors.
-
Life cycle costing
-
Risk assessment
-
Integration of assessment, optimization and management of supply chain, downstream and corporate operational data
I have many years experience in life cycle assessment, with expertise in water database modeling and assessment, energy analysis and life cycle inventory modeling. Worked with various industries, including energy, agri-food, packaging, tire, oil & gas, semi-conductor, pet food, pharmaceutical and textile sectors, for clients such as World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Mondelez, Kraft Foods, Nestlé, Michelin, Bayer, Pfizer, Huntsman, GE, Intel, and many others. 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.
Fabio AvinoEducation PhD in Physics | Turbulence at the boundary of toroidal plasmas with open and closed magnetic flux surfaces 2011 – 2015 EPFL Master in Physics | Rifrattometria su Plasmi di Interesse Termonucleare 2008 – 2010 La Sapienza Bachelor in Physics | Fluorescenza X portatile per l'analisi dei beni culturali 2005 – 2008 La Sapienza Professionals experiences Physicist - Senior Fellow 2017–2020 CERNScientist 2016–2017 EPFL
Teaching & PhD P
Alan HowlingTeaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students Juliette Ballutaud Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Boris Legradic, Michaël Chesaux, Ralph Schnyder, Riccardo Agnello
Frank VöhringerExpertise
Climate economicsEnvironmental economicsEnergy economicsComputable general equilibrium modeling
Teaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Sophie Maire, Takafumi Usui Courses Models for applied environmental economics ENV-723 Mainly based on the discussion of peer reviewed academic papers, the course introduces non economists to the main types of applied models used in environmental economic analysis: linear programming, partial and general equilibrium, game theory, and ag
Wolf Hendrik HuwaldDr. Hendrik Huwald is a scientist at the Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (CRYOS) and a lecturer at the Environmental Sciences and Engineering Section (SSIE) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He completed his PhD in 2003 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETHZ), developing a numerical model for sea ice and studying energy transfer processes in the Arctic. Between 2005 and 2012 he was a post-doctoral fellow and scientist at the Laboratory of Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology (EFLUM) of EPFL working on Alpine snow-atmosphere interaction, and energy balance-related research mainly in mountain regions. During this time, he designed, led and participated in numerous large field experiments in different environments. In 2013 he joined the newly founded CRYOS laboratory where he conducted research in the domains of snow science, hydrology, boundary layer meteorology and environmental sensing. He has extensive experience with project management both on national and international level.
Alexandre ButtlerI am a honorary professor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne - EPFL. Up to 2019, I was a joint-professor between EPFL (Head of the laboratory of Ecological Systems - ECOS) and the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL for Forest, Snow and Landscape (Head of the research group Pasture Woodlands and Wetlands) and head of the Site WSL-Lausanne. I was also professor at the laboratory of Chrono-Environnement (UMR CNRS 6249) of the University of Franche-Comté, Besançon (France). I am author or co-author of over 160 papers in international ISI cited peer-reviewed journals.
