Henry MarkramHenry Markram started a dual scientific and medical career at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa. His scientific work in the 80s revealed the polymodal receptive fields of pontomedullary reticular formation neurons in vivo and how acetylcholine re-organized these sensory maps.
He moved to Israel in 1988 and obtained his PhD at the Weizmann Institute where he discovered a link between acetylcholine and memory mechanisms by being the first to show that acetylcholine modulates the NMDA receptor in vitro studies, and thereby gates which synapses can undergo synaptic plasticity. He was also the first to characterize the electrical and anatomical properties of the cholinergic neurons in the medial septum diagonal band.
He carried out a first postdoctoral study as a Fulbright Scholar at the NIH, on the biophysics of ion channels on synaptic vesicles using sub-fractionation methods to isolate synaptic vesicles and patch-clamp recordings to characterize the ion channels. He carried out a second postdoctoral study at the Max Planck Institute, as a Minerva Fellow, where he discovered that individual action potentials propagating back into dendrites also cause pulsed influx of Ca2 into the dendrites and found that sub-threshold activity could also activated a low threshold Ca2 channel. He developed a model to show how different types of electrical activities can divert Ca2 to activate different intracellular targets depending on the speed of Ca2 influx an insight that helps explain how Ca2 acts as a universal second messenger. His most well known discovery is that of the millisecond watershed to judge the relevance of communication between neurons marked by the back-propagating action potential. This phenomenon is now called Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP), which many laboratories around the world have subsequently found in multiple brain regions and many theoreticians have incorporated as a learning rule. At the Max-Planck he also started exploring the micro-anatomical and physiological principles of the different neurons of the neocortex and of the mono-synaptic connections that they form - the first step towards a systematic reverse engineering of the neocortical microcircuitry to derive the blue prints of the cortical column in a manner that would allow computer model reconstruction.
He received a tenure track position at the Weizmann Institute where he continued the reverse engineering studies and also discovered a number of core principles of the structural and functional organization such as differential signaling onto different neurons, models of dynamic synapses with Misha Tsodyks, the computational functions of dynamic synapses, and how GABAergic neurons map onto interneurons and pyramidal neurons. A major contribution during this period was his discovery of Redistribution of Synaptic Efficacy (RSE), where he showed that co-activation of neurons does not only alter synaptic strength, but also the dynamics of transmission. At the Weizmann, he also found the tabula rasa principle which governs the random structural connectivity between pyramidal neurons and a non-random functional connectivity due to target selection. Markram also developed a novel computation framework with Wolfgang Maass to account for the impact of multiple time constants in neurons and synapses on information processing called liquid computing or high entropy computing.
In 2002, he was appointed Full professor at the EPFL where he founded and directed the Brain Mind Institute. During this time Markram continued his reverse engineering approaches and developed a series of new technologies to allow large-scale multi-neuron patch-clamp studies. Markrams lab discovered a novel microcircuit plasticity phenomenon where connections are formed and eliminated in a Darwinian manner as apposed to where synapses are strengthening or weakened as found for LTP. This was the first demonstration that neural circuits are constantly being re-wired and excitation can boost the rate of re-wiring.
At the EPFL he also completed the much of the reverse engineering studies on the neocortical microcircuitry, revealing deeper insight into the circuit design and built databases of the blue-print of the cortical column. In 2005 he used these databases to launched the Blue Brain Project. The BBP used IBMs most advanced supercomputers to reconstruct a detailed computer model of the neocortical column composed of 10000 neurons, more than 340 different types of neurons distributed according to a layer-based recipe of composition and interconnected with 30 million synapses (6 different types) according to synaptic mapping recipes. The Blue Brain team built dozens of applications that now allow automated reconstruction, simulation, visualization, analysis and calibration of detailed microcircuits. This Proof of Concept completed, Markrams lab has now set the agenda towards whole brain and molecular modeling.
With an in depth understanding of the neocortical microcircuit, Markram set a path to determine how the neocortex changes in Autism. He found hyper-reactivity due to hyper-connectivity in the circuitry and hyper-plasticity due to hyper-NMDA expression. Similar findings in the Amygdala together with behavioral evidence that the animal model of autism expressed hyper-fear led to the novel theory of Autism called the Intense World Syndrome proposed by Henry and Kamila Markram. The Intense World Syndrome claims that the brain of an Autist is hyper-sensitive and hyper-plastic which renders the world painfully intense and the brain overly autonomous. The theory is acquiring rapid recognition and many new studies have extended the findings to other brain regions and to other models of autism.
Markram aims to eventually build detailed computer models of brains of mammals to pioneer simulation-based research in the neuroscience which could serve to aggregate, integrate, unify and validate our knowledge of the brain and to use such a facility as a new tool to explore the emergence of intelligence and higher cognitive functions in the brain, and explore hypotheses of diseases as well as treatments.
Dominique BonvinDominique Bonvin is Professor and Director of the Automatic Control Laboratory of EPFL. He received his Diploma in Chemical Engineering from ETH Zürich, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He worked in the field of process control for the Sandoz Corporation in Basel and with the Systems Engineering Group of ETH Zürich. He joined the EPFL in 1989, where his current research interests include modeling, control and optimization of dynamic systems. He served as Director of the Automatic Control Laboratory for the periods 1993-97, 2003-2007 and again since 2012, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department in 1995-97 and Dean of Bachelor and Master Studies at EPFL for the period 2004-2011.
Anisoara IonescuTeaching & PhD PhD Students Sebastian Mayr, Dario Sciacca, Hojjat Karami Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Abolfazl Soltani, Gaëlle Prigent Courses Electronic circuits and systems EE-336 The objective of this course is an in-depth study of electronic circuits and systems using the fundamental concept of feedback, with an emphasis on practical applications. The course also covers the fundamental principles of A/D and D/A converters and their architectures. Sensors in medical instrument
Dimitri Nestor Alice Van De VilleExpertise
Brain and spinal cord imaging, signal and image processing, network science, dynamic systems
Teaching & PhD PhD Students Alexandre Cionca, Chun Hei Michael Chan, Flavia Petruso, Bassam El Rawas, Nikolaos Molochidis, Christophe Pascal Jérémie Chênes, Fabrice Jean Guibert, Alessio Siviglia, Ekansh Sareen, Beatrice Lugli Past EPFL PhD Students Djano Kandaswamy, Fikret Isik Karahanoglu, Nora Leonardi, Zafer Dogan, Jeffrey Adam Kasten, Naghmeh Ghazaleh, Rotem Roza Kopel, Daniela Maria Zöller, Thomas
Sandro CarraraSandro Carrara is an IEEE Fellow for his outstanding record of accomplishments in the field of design of nanoscale biological CMOS sensors. He is also the recipient of the IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award in 2016 for his leadership in the emerging area of co-design in Bio/Nano/CMOS interfaces. He is a Professor of the EPFL in Lausanne (Switzerland), and head of the "Bio/CMOS Interfaces" (BCI) research group. He is former professor of optical and electrical biosensors at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Biophysics (DIBE) of the University of Genoa (Italy) and former professor of nanobiotechnology at the University of Bologna (Italy). He holds a PhD in Biochemistry & Biophysics from University of Padua (Italy), a Master degree in Physics from University of Genoa (Italy), and a diploma in Electronics from National Institute of Technology in Albenga (Italy). His scientific interests are on electrical phenomena of nano-bio-structured films, and include CMOS design of biochips based on proteins and DNA. Along his carrier, he published 7 books, one as author with Springer on Bio/CMOS interfaces and, more recently, a Handbook of Bioelectronics with Cambridge University Press. He has more than 250 scientific publications and is author of 13 patents. He is now Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Sensors Journal, the largest journal among 2019 IEEE publications; he is also founder and Editor-in-Chief of the journal BioNanoScience by Springer, and Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems. He is a member of the IEEE Sensors Council and his Executive Committee. He was a member of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the IEEE Circuits And Systems Society (CASS). He has been appointed as IEEE Sensors Council Distinguished Lecturer for the years 2017-2019, and CASS Distinguished Lecturer for the years 2013-2014. His work received several international recognitions: several Top-25 Hottest-Articles (2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, and two times in 2012) published in highly ranked international journals such as Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Sensors and Actuators B, IEEE Sensors journal, and Thin Solid Films; a NATO Advanced Research Award in 1996 for the original contribution to the physics of single-electron conductivity in nano-particles; six Best Paper Awards at the IEEE Sensors Conference 2019 (Montreal) in 2019, Conferences IEEE NGCAS in 2017 (Genoa), MOBIHEALTH in 2016 (Milan), IEEE PRIME in 2015 (Glasgow), in 2010 (Berlin), and in 2009 (Cork); three Best Poster Awards at the EMBEC Conference in 2017 (Tampere, Finland), Nanotera workshop in 2011 (Bern), and NanoEurope Symposium in 2009 (Rapperswil). He also received the Best Referees Award from the journal Biosensor and Bioelectronics in 2006. From 1997 to 2000, he was a member of an international committee at the ELETTRA Synchrotron in Trieste. From 2000 to 2003, he was scientific leader of a National Research Program (PNR) in the filed of Nanobiotechnology. He was an internationally esteemed expert of the evaluation panel of the Academy of Finland in a research program for the years 2010-2013. He has been the General Chairman of the Conference IEEE BioCAS 2014, the premier worldwide international conference in the area of circuits and systems for biomedical applications
Nico de RooijNico de Rooij is Professor Emeritus of EPFL and previous Vice-President of CSEM SA. He was Professor of Microengineering at EPFL and Head of the Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Laboratory (
SAMLAB
) from 2009 to 2016. At
CSEM SA
he was responsible for the EPFL CSEM coordination from 2012 to 2016. His research activities include the design, micro fabrication and application of miniaturized silicon based sensors, actuators, and microsystems. He authored and coauthored over 400 published
journal papers
in these areas.
He was Professor at the University of Neuchatel and Head of the Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Laboratory (SAMLAB) from 1982 to 2008. Since October 1990 till October 1996 and again from October 2002 until June 2008, he has been the director of the Institute of Microtechnology of the University of Neuchatel (IMT UniNE). He lectured at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETHZ), and since 1989, he has been a part-time professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). He has been appointed Vice-President of the CSEM SA in February 2008 and headed the newly created Microsystems Technology Division of CSEM SA, from 2008 until 2012. He was Director of EPFL's Institute of Microengineering (EPFL STI IMT) from 2009 to 2012, following the transfer of IMT Uni-NE to EPFL.
Dr. de Rooij is a Fellow of the IEEE and Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK). He recieved the IEEE
Jun-Ichi Nishizawa Gold Medal
, the Schlumberger Prize as well as the
MNE Fellow Award 2016
. He was awarded a Visiting Investigatorship Program (VIP) in MEMS/NEMS Systems by the
A*STAR Science and Engineering Council (SERC)
, Singapore, hosted by
SIMTech
, for the period 2005-2008.
Prof. de Rooij is Corresponding Member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
and Individual Member of the
Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences
.
He has been serving on the Editorial Boards of the
IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (IEEE JMEMS)
,
the IEEE proceedings
,
the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, JM & M,
,
the Sensors and Actuators
,and
Sensors and Materials
. He was Member of the Information and Communication technology jury of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards from 2009 to 2012.
Dr. de Rooij is (or was) Member of numerous international steering committees of conference series as well as
technical paper review panels including the steering committee of the International Conference on Solid-State
Sensors and Actuators and of Eurosensors. He acted as European Program Chairman of Transducers '87 and General Chairman of Transducers '89, Montreux, Switzerland.
He has supervised more than 70 Ph.D. students, who have successfully completed their
Ph.D. thesis.
He received his M.Sc. degree in physical chemistry from the State University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, in 1975, and a Ph.D. degree from Twente University of Technology, The Netherlands, in 1978. From 1978 to 1982, he worked at the Research and Development Department of Cordis Europa N.V., The Netherlands.
Paul MuraltPaul Muralt received a diploma in experimental physics in 1978 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH in Zurich. He accomplished his Ph.D. thesis in the field of commensurate-incommensurate phase transitions at the Solid State Laboratory of ETH. In the years 1984 and 1985 he held a post doctoral position at the IBM Research Laboratory in Zurich where he pioneered the application of scanning tunneling microscopy to surface potential imaging. In 1987, after a stay at the Free University of Berlin, he joined the Balzers group in Liechtenstein. He specialized in sputter deposition techniques, and managed since 1991 a department for development and applications of Physical Vapor Deposition and PECVD processes. In 1993, he joined the Ceramics Laboratory of EPFL in Lausanne. AS group leader for thin films and MEMS devices, he specialized in piezoelectric and pyroelectric MEMS with mostly Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 and AlN thin film. His research interests are in thin film growth in general, and more specifically in property assessment of small ferroelectric structures, in integration issues of ferroelectric and other polar materials, property-microstructure relationships, and applications of polar materials in semiconductor and micro-electro-mechanical devices. More recently he extended his interests to oxide thin films of ionic conductors. The focus in piezoelectric thin films was directed towards AlN-ScN alloys. He gives lectures in thin film processing, micro fabrication, and surface analysis. He authored or co-authored more than 230 scientific articles. He became Fellow of IEEE in 2013. In 2005, he received an outstanding achievement award at the International Symposium on Integrated Ferroelectrics (ISIF), and in 2016 the B.C. Sawyer Memorial award.
Chairman of the International Workshops on Piezoelectric MEMS(http://www.piezomems2011.org/) Olaf BlankeTeaching & PhD PhD Students Haotian Yao, Neza Vehar, Gerardus Yannick Mijsters, Andreea-Maria Gui, Unnat Hemangbhai Antani, Angelica Di Domenico, Berenice Favre-Bulle Past EPFL PhD Students Manuel Mercier, Bigna Lenggenhager, Pär Halje, Tej Tadi, Sebastian Dieguez Falcon, Oliver Alan Kannape, Lukas Heydrich, Nathan Evans, Danilo Jimenez Rezende, Steven Gale, Christian Pfeiffer, Mariia Kaliuzhna, Joachim Forget, Polona Pozeg, Petr Grivaz, Michel Akselrod, Marco Solcà, Jemina Fasola, Eva Blondiaux, Myeong S
Philippe RenaudPhilippe Renaud is Professor at the Microsystem Laboratory (LMIS4) at EPFL. He is also the scientific director of the EPFL Center of MicroNanoTechnology (CMI). His main research area is related to micronano technologies in biomedical applications (BioMEMS) with emphasis on cell-chips, nanofluidics and bioelectronics. Ph. Renaud is invloved in many scientifics papers in his research area. He received his diploma in physics from the University of Neuchâtel (1983) and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Lausanne (1988). He was postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley (1988-89) and then at the IBM Zürich Research Laboratory in Switzerland (1990-91). In 1992, he joined the Sensors and Actuators group of the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) at Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was appointed assistant professor at EPFL in 1994 and full professor in 1997. In summer 1996, he was visiting professor at the Tohoku University, Japan. Ph. Renaud is active in several scientific committee (scientific journals, international conferences, scientific advisory boards of companies, PhD thesis committee). He is also co-founder of the Nanotech-Montreux conference. Ph. Renaud is committed to valorization of basic research through his involvement in several high-tech start-up companies.
Michael HerzogTeaching & PhD PhD Students Sandrine Brikh, Melissa Mohamad Allouche, Ece Yatikçi, Melissa Faggella, Elsa Scialom, Marie Isabelle Holdsworth, Martina Morea, Pierre Merret, Sandali Nisansa Liyanagoonawardena Past EPFL PhD Students Frank Scharnowski, Thomas Otto, Toni Saarela, Elisa Tartaglia, Bilge Sayim, Johannes Rüter, Marco Boi, Kristoffer Aberg, Yvonne Evelina Thunell, Mauro Manassi, Vitaly Chicherov, Lukasz Grzeczkowski, Marc Michael Lauffs, Ophélie Favrod, Janir Nuno Ramos da Cruz, Adrien Doerig, Lei
