Johan AuwerxJohan Auwerx is Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he occupies the Nestle Chair in Energy Metabolism. Dr. Auwerx has been using molecular physiology and systems genetics to understand metabolism in health, aging and disease. Much of his work focused on understanding how diet, exercise and hormones control metabolism through changing the expression of genes by altering the activity of transcription factors and their associated cofactors. His work was instrumental for the development of agonists of nuclear receptors - a particular class of transcription factors - into drugs, which now are used to treat high blood lipid levels, fatty liver, and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Auwerx was amongst the first to recognize that transcriptional cofactors, which fine-tune the activity of transcription factors, act as energy sensors/effectors that influence metabolic homeostasis. His research validated these cofactors as novel targets to treat metabolic diseases, and spurred the clinical use of natural compounds, such as resveratrol, as modulators of these cofactor pathways.
Johan Auwerx was elected as a member of EMBO in 2003 and is the recipient of a dozen of international scientific prizes, including the Danone International Nutrition Award, the Oskar Minkowski Prize, and the Morgagni Gold Medal. His work is highly cited by his peers with a h-factor of over 100. He is an editorial board member of several journals, including Cell Metabolism, Molecular Systems Biology, The EMBO Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, Cell, and Science. Dr. Auwerx co-founded a handful of biotech companies, including Carex, PhytoDia, and most recently Mitobridge, and has served on several scientific advisory boards.
Dr. Auwerx received both his MD and PhD in Molecular Endocrinology at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. He was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Rudolf HoviusExpertise
•Protein structure, expression & purification•Molecular interaction & receptor activation•Fluorescence imaging & spectroscopySignalling & sensing
Mission
=> Teaching: Lecture courses, tutorials and practicals in biochemistry, biophysical chemistry of membranes and signalling processes. Participating to the Commission d'Enseignement and Commission de l'Ecole Doctorale of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.=> Research interests: Protein function and structure, Membrane protein (especially recepto
Kamiar AminianKamiar Aminian received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1982, the Ph.D degree in biomedical engineering in 1989 and the Postgraduate degree on technical computing in 1993 from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He was assistant professor (1994-1996) with Sharif University of Technology (Tehran). He joint EPFL in 1996 where he is currently Professor of medical instrumentation and the director of the Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement in the Institute of Bioengineering of EPFL. His research interests include methodologies for human movement monitoring and analysis in real world conditions mainly based on wearable technologies and inertial sensors with emphasis on gait, physical activity and sport. His research aims to perform outcome evaluation in orthopaedics, to improve motor function and intervention programs in aging and patients with movement disorders and pain, and to identify metrics of performance in sport science.
Kamiar Aminian is a member of the International Society of Posture and Gait Research, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the European Society of Movement Analysis in Adults and Children, the Prevention of fall Network Europe, the Intentional Society of Biomechanics and the President of the 3D analysis of the human movement group. He is author or co-author of more than 450 scientific papers published in reviewed journals and presented at international conferences and holds 10 patents related to medical devices.
Full CV
ORCID
Florence PojerExpertise
MER and Head of Unit - Protein Production and Structure Reseach Core Facility within the Life Sciences School - PTPSP: Expertise in Integrative protein Structural Biology (mainly X-ray Crystallography and Cryo-EM) and production of macromolecules in mammalian and bacterial cells. Innovate4Life team member at SV: i4L supports the next generation of entrepreneurs through education, mentorship, and funding, to translate life sciences discoveries into technologies that benefit society. Education and
Christian HeinisTeaching & PhD PhD Students Thomas Julien Denis Emel, Alessandro Scapozza, Nathan Moïse De Sadeleer, Florian Handel, Hugo André Clerc, Frédéric Brantschen, Grégoire Menoud, Ines Michrafy, Jonathan Schmitt, Laura Elena Massaad Past EPFL PhD Students Jeremy Touati, Shiyu Chen, Sophie Venet-Bonnot, Lisa Pollaro, Inmaculada Rentero Rebollo, Philippe Diderich, Charlotte Urech-Varenne, Silvia Bellotto, Davide Bertoldo, Alessandro Zorzi, Camille Villequey, Jonas Alfred Karl Wilbs, Grigory Karateev, Vanessa Carle
Anja SkrivervikAnja Skrivervik obtained her electrical engineering degree from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 1986, and her PhD from the same institution in 1992, for which she received the Latsis award. After a stay at the University of Rennes as an invited Research Fellow and two years in the industry, she returned part time to EPFL as an Assistant Professor in 1996, and is now a Professeur Titulaire at this institution, where she is the head of the Microwave and Antenna Group. Her research activities include electrically small antennas, antennas in biological media, periodic structures, reflect- and tranmitarrays, and numerical techniques for electromagnetics. She is author or co-author of more than 200 peer reviewed scientific publications. Her teaching activities include courses on microwaves and antennas, and she has course at Bachelor, Master and PhD levels. She was director of the EE section form 1996-2000, and is currently the director of the EE doctoral school at EPFL.
She is very active in European collaboration and European projects. She was the chairperson of the Swiss URSI until 2012, is a Board member of the European School on Antennas and is frequently requested to review research programs and centers in Europe. She is a member of the board of directors of the European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP) since 2017.
Simon Nessim HeneinBorn in 1973 and of Egyptian-Swiss nationality, Simon Henein grew up in Cairo. He obtained an engineering degree at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 1996 and went on to complete his doctorate at the EPFL in 2000. In 2001, he published the book “Conception des guidages flexibles” which has become a reference in precision engineering. He then joined the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et Microtechnique (CSEM), Neuchatel, Switzerland, where he conceived and developed mechanisms for robotic, aerospace, medical and watchmaking applications. He pursued his research career at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland, where he developed instruments for the Swiss Light Source Synchrotron (SLS). Since November 1st, 2012, he is associate professor in microengineering at the EPFL, holder of the Patek Philippe Chair and director of the Micromechanical and horological design laboratory (Instant-Lab).
Sandrine GerberSandrine Gerber studied chemistry at the "Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris" in France, where she obtained a diploma of chemical engineer in 1993. The same year she obtained a DEA (Master degree) of organic chemistry at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI, France). From 1993 to 1996 she did a PhD in organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Pierre Genêt at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris. In 1996, she moved to University of Lausanne for a post-doctoral stay under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Vogel. In 1998, she was appointed Maître-Assistante at the Institute of Organic Chemistry in the University of Lausanne. In 2003, she obtained the habilitation to direct research from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI, France). The same year, she was appointed scientific adjunct at the EPFL and senior scientist (Maître d'Enseignement et de Recherche) in 2006. In December 2014, she was promoted to titular professor. Since September 2007, Sandrine Gerber is deputy to the director of the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC). She is also member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Chemical Society. Since 2007, Sandrine Gerber is part-time lecturer at the university of Fribourg. She was awarded the Prize Eugene Schueller in 1997, the Prize Dufour for prospective organic chemistry in 2005 and the Werner Prize 2010. She also received a special mention in recognition of exceptional quality of pedagogic competencies in the teaching of basic sciences, given by the Direction of the School of Biology and Medicine from the University of Lausanne, in 2013. In October 2018, she will receive the Prize for Excellence in Teaching from the section of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
Dario FloreanoProf. Dario Floreano is director of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Since 2010, he is the founding director of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Robotics, a research program that brings together more than 20 labs across Switzerland. Prof. Floreano holds an M.A. in Vision, an M.S. in Neural Computation, and a PhD in Robotics. He has held research positions at Sony Computer Science Laboratory, at Caltech/JPL, and at Harvard University. His main research interests are Robotics and A.I. at the convergence of biology and engineering. Prof. Floreano made pioneering contributions to the fields of evolutionary robotics, aerial robotics, and soft robotics. He served in numerous advisory boards and committees, including the Future and Emerging Technologies division of the European Commission, the World Economic Forum Agenda Council, the International Society of Artificial Life, the International Neural Network Society, and in the editorial committee of several scientific journals. In addition, he helped spinning off two drone companies (senseFly.com and Flyability.com) and a non-for-profit portal on robotics and A.I. (RoboHub.org). Books
Manuale sulle Reti Neurali, il Mulino (in Italian), 1996 (first edition), 2006 (second edition)Evolutionary Robotics, MIT Press, 2000
Bio-Inspired Artificial Intelligence, MIT Press, 2008
Flying Insects and Robots, Springer Verlag, 2010
Benoît Jean Dominique FerrariDr. Benoît J.D. Ferrari studied Biochemistry and Biology and completed his PhD in Ecotoxicology at the University of Lorraine (Metz, France) in 2000. After several years at the University of Geneva (Forel F.A. Institute, Geneva, Switzerland; 2002-2008) and Irstea (Formerly Cemagref, Lyon, France; 2000-2002 and 2008-2013), he joined the Swiss Centre of Applied Ecotoxicology (Centre Ecotox Eawag/EPFL) in October 2013 as group leader of the soil and sediment ecotoxicology group at Lausanne. During his different mandates, he was implied as (co-)proponent in different research projects supported e.g. by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the French National Research Agency or the European Framework Programme for Research. His main areas of interest cover the ecodynamic of contaminants and their impact on the ecophysiology of organisms. Particularly, he is involved in 1) the development of exposure and effect indicators to evaluate the chemical stresses, 2) the integration of such indicators in laboratory- and field-based approaches to assess the quality of aquatic ecosystems, 3) the development of adapted bioassays for active biomonitoring, and 4) the transfer of such ecotoxicological tools and approaches towards end-users.
Florian Frédéric Vincent BreiderFlorian Breider obtained his PhD in the field of the stable isotope biogeochemistry from the University of Neuchatel in 2013. This was followed by seven months of postdoc at EPFL in the Atmospheric Particles Research Laboratory and two years as research associate at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) where he conducted studies on nitrous oxide biogeochemistry in oceans. From 2015 to 2018, he was research scientist in the Laboratory for Water Quality and Treatment at EPFL where he conducted research on disinfection by-products and antibiotic resistant bacteria. Since May 2018, he is director of the Central Environmental Laboratory at the Institute of Environmental Engineering of EPFL.
