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).
Yujia ZhangExpertise
Dropletronics: microscale droplet-based modular iontronics (e.g., batteries, diodes, transistors, memristors and circuits)Bioiontronics and bioelectronicsFunctional synthetic, cellular and hybrid tissuesBioengineering and human-machine interfaceAdvanced manufacturing of soft and living matter across multiple scales
2026 Masters Semester Project/Thesis, PhD and Postdoc Positions
Many opportunities exist in microengineering, bioengineering, materials science, microrobots, programming and AI; please
Hubert GiraultEducation: 1979 - Engineering diploma from Grenoble Institute of Technology. FRANCE. 1982 - PhD- Department of Chemistry, University of Southampton. Thesis entitled : Interfacial studies using drop image processing techniques. Positions : 1982 - 1984 SERC Research Fellow. University of Southampton. 1984 - 1985 CNRS Research Fellow. University of Southampton. 1985 - 1992 Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, University of Edinburgh. 1992 - Professor of Physical Chemistry, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. 2011 - 2014 Dean of Bachelor and Master studies Hubert Girault is the author of 2 textbooks, the co-author of about 600 scientific publications with more than 20'000 citations and the co-inventor of more than 15 patents. During his academic career, he has supervised 70 PhD students. 30 alumni of his laboratory are now Professors. Honours: Faraday medal 2006, Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry 2007, Reilley Award 2015. Fellow of the Electrochemical Society (USA), Shikata International medal, Polarography Society of Japan. Associate editor of Chemical Science
Kristina SchoonjansExpertise
Bile acid signalingNutrient sensingIntermediary metabolismMetabolic disorders
Teaching & PhD PhD Students Adrien Faure Past EPFL PhD Students Pan Xu, Ece Yildiz, Nadia Bresciani, Yu Sun, Francesca Pontanari, Alejandro Alonso Calleja Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Mitsunori Nomura, Pan Xu, Katyayanee Neopane, Lucie Camille Chanvillard, Jakob Josef Langer, Bilge Sen Elçi Courses General Biology BIOENG-110 The purpose of the course is to provide a general overview of the biolo
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.
Didier TronoAfter obtaining an M.D. from the University of Geneva and completing a clinical training in pathology, internal medicine and infectious diseases in Geneva and at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Didier Trono embarked in a scientific career at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research of MIT. In 1990, he joined the faculty of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to launch a center for AIDS research. He moved back to Europe seven years later, before taking the reins of the newly created EPFL School of Life Sciences, which he directed from 2004 to 2012. He is now actively engaged in the efforts of Switzerland to integrate new technologies in the fields of precision medicine and personalized health.
Sandra Eloise KjeldsenPositions
2008- : Laborantine (Laboratoire du Pr D. Trono), Laboratoire de virologie et génétique, EPFL, Suisse.
2004-2008: Laborantine (Laboratoire du Pr A. Trumpp), ISREC, Suisse.
2004: Assistante de recherche (Laboratoire du Pr G. Corradin), Institut de Biochimie, Université de Lausanne, Suisse.
Éducation
1999 - 2004:
Diplôme en Biologie (spécialités : Immunologie, Biochimie et Pharmacologie)
Université de Lausanne, Suisse.
Juin 1999:
Baccalauréat Scientifique, France. Harald BruneOriginaire de Münich en Allemagne, né en 1961, Harald Brune obtient son diplôme en physique de l'Université Ludwig Maximilians en 1989. Après une thèse en chimie physique à l'Institut Fritz-Haber de la Société Max-Planck à Berlin il obtient son titre de docteur ès sciences en 1992. Dès cela, il rejoint le groupe du Prof. K. Kern à l'Institut de physique expérimentale à l'EPFL. En 1995 il est chercheur invité à Copenhague travaillant en modélisation chez le Prof. J. Nørskov. De retour à l'EPFL, il se voit décerné le prix Latsis EPFL 1996 pour ses études par microscopie à effet tunnel de processus atomiques déterminants la croissance cristalline de couches minces. En 1998 il obtient son habilitation (venia legendi) en Physique et est nommé Maître d'enseignement et de recherche (MER) en nanophysique à l'EPFL. La même année il recoit une offre de Professeur Ordinaire (C4) de l'Université Philipps de Marburg. Début 1999 il réfuse cette offre et accepte un poste de Professeur Extraordinaire à l'EPFL et s'installe au sein de l'Institut de la Physique des Nanostructures. Il est nommé Professeur Ordinaire en 2005. Sa recherche porte sur les propriétés physiques (en particulier le magnétisme et la structure électronique) de nouvelles formes de la matière condensée comme des nanostructures et des couches ultra-minces. Il s'intéresse également à la catalyse hétérogène sur des systèmes inspirés dans leur composition et taille par celle des sites actives dans les enzymes en biologie. Il enseigne la Physique Générale pour ingénieurs, la Physique des matériaux solides pour physiciens, les méthodes expérimentales pour physiciens, ainsi que la Physique des surfaces, interfaces et nanostrcutures à l'école doctorale.
Mor-Miri MishkovskyI am a chemist, graduated Cum Laude in 2002 from Tel Aviv University in Israel. I obtained a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel on the development of new technology for rapid detection of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic data aiming at reducing the measurement time from hours to a fraction of second with Prof. Lucio Frydman. My thesis “Methodological Developments in Ultrafast Multidimensional NMR” granted me the Auto Swartz excellence award in 2007. Since 2009 I am working with the Laboratory of Functional and Metabolic Imaging at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, on the development of hyperpolarized (HP) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) methodologies for monitoring biochemical processes in real-time.My research is focused on the development of Magnetic Resonance (MR) Molecular Imaging by dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (dDNP). HP agents to interrogate biochemical processes in real-time are applied in vivo in the healthy brain and disease models, aiming at improving our understanding of cerebral function and metabolism toward better clinical diagnostics and therapy.
