Angela SteinauerSince 2022: Head of the Laboratory of Biomolecular Engineering and Nanomedicine (LIBN), EPFL (Switzerland)2019-2021: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow at ETHZ (Switzerland)2018: Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Yale University (USA)2007-2012: B.Sc. & M.Sc. in Chemistry from University of Zurich (Switzerland)
Teaching & PhD PhD Students Diogo Miguel De Abreu Viegas, Georges Barnikol, Oliver Dennis, Andrea Elizabeth Melgar Aguilar, Paula Oeser, Manutsawee Thanaburakorn Courses Advanced general chemistry I CH
Simon HolzerHi, I am Simon Holzer. I received my B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering with a focus on microtechnology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) in 2020 and 2022, respectively. I am currently working towards Ph.D. in the Integrated Actuators Laboratory (LAI) at EPFL in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. My research interests lie in the field of soft robotics, artificial muscles, and biomechanics.
Diego Ruben BarrettinoDiego Barrettino (S’93–M’98–SM’06) received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1997, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) in 2004.
He worked at Allegro MicroSystems Inc., from 1997 to 2000, where he was an Analog IC Designer of Hall-effect magnetic sensors. From 2000 to 2004, he was a Ph.D. student and Research Assistant at ETHZ, where he designed chemical and mechanical sensors. In 2004, he moved to the USA where he designed biomedical devices first as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the University of Washington, and then as an Assistant Professor in the University of Hawaii. In 2006, he returned to Europe where he joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) as a Senior Research Scientist for the design and development of biosensors using organic nanotransistors. From 2007 to 2009, he was a Senior Lecturer in the University of Glasgow, U.K., and in the University College Cork, Republic of Ireland, where he designed ultra-low power biomedical devices. From 2009 to 2017, he was Full Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Microelectronics, Bioelectronics and Sensor Systems (LMBS) at the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), where he designed smart contact lenses and eye implants. In 2017, he joined both the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences (HSLU) and EPFL as a part-time Senior Research Scientist to continue his work on smart sensor systems.
His research interests are in the fields of physical, chemical, and biomedical microsensors; sensor fusion algorithms; analog and mixed-signal IC design; MEMS; embedded systems; avionics and bioelectronics.
Diego Barrettino is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Sophie Laurence Geneviève DelhayTeaching & PhD PhD Students Capucine Legrand Courses Housing and typology AR-530 Using a typology-focused approach, the teachers will successively explore the main types of rationalist housing to understand their historical origins, as well as their aspirations and social and political implications. Studio BA5 (Delhay) AR-301(ad) The house as a city - The continuous households. Study trip - Zurich: 4th to 6th October 2025 Studio BA6 (Delhay) AR-302(ad) The c
Mirko KovacExpertise
Aerial RoboticsEnvironmental SensingSustainability RoboticsPhysical Artificial Intelligence
Short Biography Prof. Mirko Kovač is Director of the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics, jointly appointed at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) in Zürich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). He holds an Honorary Professorship at Imperial College London, where he previously served as Full Professor and founded the Aerial Robotics Laborator
Christoph BachofenExpertise
As an urban plant ecophysiologist I'm interested in how the vegetation in urban systems interacts with the local microclimate. In particular, I study the mechanisms by which trees cope with extreme urban heat, and how their presence modulates the urban climate through transpiration cooling, shading and more.For my research, I combine mostly tree-level measurements, such as gas exchange and heat tolerance, with process-based modelling to scale to the urban canyon and beyond. I'm interested in compa
Janet Gordon HeringExpertise
Biogeochemical cycling of trace metals and metalloids Mineral weathering and reactions at mineral surfaces Water treatment processes for removal of inorganic contaminants
Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program, Cambridge, MA, Ph.D. in Oceanography, May1988. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, A.M. in Chemistry, January 1981. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, A.B. in Chemistry, June 1979.Professional Experience Swiss Federal Institute of A
Philippe ThalmannPhilippe Thalmann was born in Lausanne in 1963. He graduated in Economics from the University of Lausanne in 1984, where he earned a postgraduate diploma in Economics in 1986. Mr. Thalmann entered the doctoral program in Economics of Harvard University (Cambridge, U.S.A.) in 1986, which he completed with a Ph.D. in 1990. His dissertation is entitled: "Essays in the Economics of Government Revenues and Spending". Returning to Switzerland, he was hired as an assistant professor first at the University of Geneva (teachings in Public Economics), then at the University of Lausanne (teachings in Econometrics and Introductory Economics). Since 1994, Mr. Thalmann is associate professor of Economics as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne.
Ben Ori GitaiExpertise
Landscape architecture, urban planning, political geography, Mapping, ecology and History of landscape
Dr. Ben Gitai brings together geography, architecture, and interconnected fields through his multidisciplinary research and practice. He has held teaching positions at leading Swiss and French institutions, including ETH Zurich and EPFL, as well as scientific collaborations with the David Rumsey Mapping Center at Stanford University.His work draws from landscape architecture, landscape ecology, u
Mathias LerchAss. Prof. Mathias Lerch heads the Urban Demography Laboratory (URBDEMO) at the Faculty of Natural, Architectural and Build Environment (ENAC), Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). To improve understanding of urban population growth, Lerch has developed multi-disciplinary research interests in the components of demographic change (mortality/health, fertility and migration), as well as in their interactions with socioeconomic and environmental developments.
Before joining the EPFL, Lerch has acted as the deputy head of the Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. He has analyzed and taught population change at various Swiss and German universities, as well as at statistical offices, often in transition countries. Since 2008, he has regularly advised national governments, United Nations entities, survey programs and NGOs on population issues and data collection.
Farhad Rachidi-HaeriFarhad Rachidi (IEEE Fellow, EMP Fellow, Electromagnetics Academy Fellow) was born in Geneva in 1962. He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, in 1986 and 1991 respectively.
He worked at the Power Systems Laboratory of the same institute until 1996 and had several short stays at the University of Florida and the NASA Kennedy Space Center. In 1997, he joined the Lightning Research Laboratory of the University of Toronto in Canada and from April 1998 until September 1999, he was with Montena EMC in Switzerland. He is currently a titular professor and the head of the EMC Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland.
His research interests concern electromagnetic compatibility, lightning electromagnetics and electromagnetic field interactions with transmission lines.
Dr. Rachidi is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY and the President of the Swiss National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science.
He has received numerous awards including the 2005 IEEE EMC Technical Achievement Award, the 2005 CIGRE Technical Committee Award, the 2006 Blondel Medal from the French Association of Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Information Technology and Communication (SEE), the 2016 Berger Award from the International Conference on Lightning Protection, the 2016 Best Paper Award of the IEEE Transactions on EMC, and the 2017 Motohisa Kanda Award for the most cited paper of the IEEE Transactions on EMC (2012-2016).
In 2014, he was conferred the title of Honorary Professor of the Xi’an Jiaotong University in China.
He served as the Vice-Chair of the European COST Action on the Physics of Lightning Flash and its Effects from 2005 to 2009, the Chairman of the 2008 European Electromagnetics International Symposium, the President of the International Conference on Lightning Protection from 2008 to 2014, the Editor-in-Chief of the Open Atmospheric Science Journal (2010-2012) and the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY from 2013 to 2015. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and of the SUMMA Foundation, and a member of the Swiss Academy of Sciences.
He is the author or coauthor of over 200 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals and over 400 papers presented at international conferences.
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.
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.
Aldo BrandiExpertise
Earth Sciences and GeographyUrban climate modeling and measurements
