Mackenzie MathisCenter for NeuroprostheticsEPFL ELLIS Unit Faculty MemberCenter for Intelligent Systems
Alexander MathisAlexander studied pure mathematics with a minor in logic and theory of science at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. For his PhD also at LMU, he worked on optimal coding approaches to elucidate the properties of grid cells. As a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Venkatesh N. Murthy at Harvard University and Prof. Matthias Bethge at Tuebingen AI, he decided to study olfactory behaviors such as odor-guided navigation, social behaviors and the cocktail party problem in mice. During this time, he increasingly got interested sensorimotor behaviors beyond olfaction and started working on proprioception, motor adaption, as well as computer vision tools for measuring animal behavior.
In his group, he is interested in elucidating how the brain gives rise to adaptive behavior. One of the major goals is to synthesize large datasets into computationally useful information. For those purposes, he develops algorithms and systems to analyze animal behavior (e.g. DeepLabCut), neural data, as well as creates experimentally testable computational models.
Stewart ColeProfessor Stewart Cole is an international authority in bacterial molecular-genetics and genomics. He has made outstanding contributions in several fields including: bacterial anaerobic electron transport; genome analysis of retroviruses and papillomaviruses; antibiotic resistance mechanisms; and the molecular microbiology of toxigenic clostridia. His studies on isoniazid and multidrug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, together with his pioneering work on the pathogenicity, evolution and genomics of the tubercle and leprosy bacilli, have made him an undisputed leader in the field of mycobacterial research. The findings of his research are of direct relevance to public health and disease-control in both the developing world and the industrialised nations. He has published over 250 scientific papers and review articles, and holds many patents.
Benjamin Alexander Kellenberger2020–: Postdoctoral Researcher, EPFL, Sion, Switzerland2020: Postdoctoral researcher, Wageningen University, Netherlands2017–2020: PhD (cont'd); Wageningen University, Netherlands2016–2017: PhD; University of Zurich, Switzerland2009–2014: BSc. and MSc. in geography (remote sensing and GIS) and computer science; University of Zurich, Switzerland
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
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.
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
