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.
Edgard Gnansounou
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1983 Ing. Civil EPFL
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1991 Dr ès Sciences techniques, EPFL
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Directeur du Laboratoire de systèmes énergétiques (LASEN) de 2003 à 2008
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Dès 2008, Responsable du groupe de Recherche en Bioénergie et Planification énergétique
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Co-fondateur du bureau d'étude ENERS Energy Concept
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Président de la Fondation SUD (Solidarités Universitaires pour le Développement)
Je suis membre de différentes associations professionnelles parmi lesquelles figuent le Conseil Mondial de l'énergie (CME) et l'Association internationale pour l'économie de l'énergie (AIEE). Comme membre du groupe d'étude du CME sur les vulnérabilités, j'ai développé les métriques utilisées pour évaluer la vulnérabilité énergétique des pays industrialisés.
Depuis janvier 2008 : membre du Comité d'édition du journal international Bioresource Technology.
Depuis 2009: membre du Comité de la "European Biofuels Technology Platform" Devis TuiaI come from Ticino and studied in Lausanne, between UNIL and EPFL. After my PhD at UNIL in remote sensing, I was postdoc in Valencia (Spain), Boulder (CO) and EPFL, working on model adaptation and prior knowledge integration in machine learning. In 2014 I became Research Assistant Professor at University of Zurich, where I started the 'multimodal remote sensing' group. In 2017, I joined Wageningen University (NL), where I was professor of the GeoInformation Science and Remote Sensing Laboratory. Since 2020, I joined EPFL Valais, to start the ECEO lab, working at the interface between Earth observation, machine learning and environmental sciences.
Paola ViganòTeaching & PhD PhD Students Noélie Marion Charlotte Lecoanet, Shyam Sunder Sirimalla Past EPFL PhD Students Roberto Sega, Antoine Vialle, Tommaso Pietropolli, Sylvie Tram Nguyen, Anna Karla De Almeida Milani, Elena Calafati, Flore Jeanne Marie Andrea Guichot Courses Hidden rivers PENS-219 Hidden Rivers aims at fulfilling the need for an interdisciplinary understanding of the problematics surrounding urban streams, through ecological, hydrological, and spatial relationships found in riversc
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.
Ankita SinghviAnkita Singhvi studies circular economy for cities and is currently a PhD candidate at EPFL (Prof. C. R. Binder, HERUS).
Ankita received her BSc degree in Architecture from the Technical University Delft in 2017. She graduated with a design proposal for the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam that examined the ageing of materials in the built environment. Her interest in climate adaptation led her to pursue a MSc in Industrial Ecology from Leiden University and TU Delft. She graduated in 2020 with honours, with a thesis on resilience in grey and nature-based infrastructure for coastal protection.
During her studies, Ankita interned at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at Circle Economy. After graduation, she worked at LDE Centre for Sustainability, bridging science with practise. She coordinated the Circular Industries Hub, where she supported companies in their transition towards the principles of a circular economy. She collaborated on two research projects: “Securing Critical Materials for Critical Sectors: Policy options for the Netherlands and the European Union” (2021) and “Opportunities for resilient supply chains in a post-COVID-19 era: Lessons from the Dutch High Tech sector” (2021).
Ankita continues her work within the context of circular resource use at HERUS, EPFL. Her research focuses on the role of circular economy in urban and territorial transitions towards sustainability.
Armel Firmin Kemajou MbiandaTravail en cours
La construction des périphéries urbaines en Afrique subsaharienneSelon la Banque mondiale, les villes africaines connaîtront un doublement de leur population en 2040 et un triplement en 2050 pour atteindre environ 1,5 milliards d'urbains (Lall, 2017). La dimension de ces prévisions donne toute sa mesure quand on les rapporte à l'espace dans lequel elles se réaliseront. Elles deviennent même très vite alarmantes, car aujourd'hui déjà, les villes d'Afrique subsaharienne n'arrivent pas à offri
Akuto Akpedze KonouExpertise
Ecological & Social Architecture; Sustainable urban planning; Urban agriculture and health-oriented spatial planning and design; Nature-Based Solutions; Circular Design and Construction.
Mission
Design and research healthier, more inclusive, climate-resilient environments through ecological architecture and health-oriented spatial planning.
Akuto Akpedze Konou, PhD, is an architect and urban planner affiliated with CEAT ENAC - IIE EPFL. Her work bridges architectural design and urban planning with
Baraka Jean-Claude MunyakaEducation Doctorate | Industrial & Systems Engineering 2021 – 2021 University of Pretoria Masters | Insdustrial Engineering 2014 – 2014 Durban University of Technology Professionals experiences Industrial Engineer Consultant 2012–2022 Tsanyela, XIG Minerals, Volticor Enterprises, Durban; Snackworks, Durban; Microfinish Manufacturing, Durban; Nampak Flexible, Durban; Emcor Flexible, CapeTown;Industrial Engineer 2009–2010 Smith’s Plastics Ltd, Durban
Teaching &
Jérôme ChenalExpertise
Urban DesignUrban PlanningUrban ManagementPublic SpaceHousingDevelopment StudiesVisual Anthropology
Mission
Director of CEAT Director of Excellence in Africa Center Affiliate professor at UM6P
Teaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students Stéphanie Hasler, Rémi Jaligot, Armel Firmin Kemajou Mbianda, Martí Bosch Padrós, Andrea Salmi, Vitor Pessoa Colombo, Akuto Akpedze Konou, Rim Mrani Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Marc Antoine Messer, Alexandre Rigal Courses Urban planning in the South PE
Stéphane JoostExpertise
Geographic Information Science and spatial statisticsMolecular ecology, Landscape genomics, Seascape genomicsSpatial epidemiology, Health geographics
Publications Publications- List of publications
Teaching & PhD PhD Students Marco André Vieira Ruas, Manon Laetitia Pribille, Martine Valérie Besse Past EPFL PhD Students Estelle Rochat, Solange Catherine Gaillard, Oliver Michele Selmoni, Anaïs Ladoy, Annie Sandrine Guillaume Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Sylvie Stucki, Kevin Leempoel, Martí
Martine LapriseTeaching & PhD Courses Vers des villes bioclimatiques ? AR-688
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
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Commodity, Supply chain, Operational risks due to regulatory, physical factors.
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Life cycle costing
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Risk assessment
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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. 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
Meret AeppliExpertise
soil chemistry, redox reactions, biogeochemistry
Meret Aeppli joined EPFL as a tenure track assistant professor and head of the soil biogeochemistry laboratory (SOIL) in September 2022. Her group aims to elucidate the fundamental principles and mechanisms of electron transfer reactions and their role in the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and metals in soil. Meret was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in the department of Earth System Science from 2019 to 2022 where she studied biogeoc
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.
