10 Professors appointed

Paul Bowen has been appointed Adjunct Professor, Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the School of Engineering (STI)
Paul Bowen’s research on the processing and characterization of powders combines atomistic simulations with solid experimental experience to accomplish multi-scale modeling of carbon materials. Focusing both on the acquisition of a fundamental understanding of the processes and their application in practical uses, his activities aim to control interfaces in powders, studying interactions at the atomic level.

Paul Bowen’s recent research has made progress in multi-scale modeling for transparent polycrystalline ceramics. Cutting-edge developments in the atomistic simulation of ceramics, alongside more conventional modeling approaches, will provide further progress in many areas such as powder synthesis, colloidal dispersion and ceramics processing, as well as in the modeling of cement and ceramic grain boundaries.

Bryan Ford has been named Associate Professor of Computer and Communication Systems in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC)
Bryan Ford is a systems specialist who is currently doing research in security and confidentiality (privacy). He is highly esteemed by the systems community for his ability to tackle complex problems and to demonstrate his innovative approaches in top publications and in robust software systems.

Ford has explored three major research areas: the next generation of information transport, operating systems for deterministic parallel programming, and protecting anonymity in the internet The research from his doctoral thesis focused on replacing the standard TCP communications protocol for building distributed and mobile applications, an increasingly important field given the ubiquity of smartphones.

Nikolas (Nikolaos) Geroliminis has been appointed Associated Professor of Transportation Engineering in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC)
Nikolas Geroliminis’s research focuses on urban transportation systems and traffic management operations. This includes noteworthy work on an accident management system that provides assistance to vehicles that have broken down and alleviates periods of peak congestion. He accomplished this through the rapid detection, confirmation and dissipation of incidents.

Nikolas Geroliminis developed a model for locating vehicles in a state of emergency within congested urban networks subjected to considerable traffic uncertainty. This interdisciplinary research combines elements of applied mathematics, sophisticated stochastic modeling and large-scale data farms (“big data”) in real time. This results in improved understanding, on both the theoretical and applied levels, of the dynamics of traffic flow for the development of practical recommendations, particularly in urban planning. His research has had a significant impact both in international scientific journals and in the daily lives of Swiss drivers.

Andras Kis has been named Associate Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the School of Engineering (STI)
The goal of Andras Kis’s research is to introduce new materials for electronics, especially so-called two-dimensional materials; i.e., materials formed by a single layer of molecules extracted from massive single crystals. These materials could replace silicon and thereby solve the dissipation problems that characterize modern circuits. They also combine the electronic performance of silicon with the mechanical flexibility of organic electronic materials.

Andras Kis particularly focuses on molybdenum disulphide and has found in it a new material that is more promising for electronics than graphene. He is internationally recognized for his many outstanding contributions, including the realization of the first transistor and highly sensitive light sensors based on a two-dimensional semiconductor.

Christos (Christoforos) Kozyrakis has been appointed Full Professor of Computer and Communication Systems in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC)
Christos Kozyrakis has achieved major breakthroughs in computer architecture and in the energy efficiency of computer systems. His research on transactional memories lead to the development of an innovative, unconventional computer architecture that could potentially reduce the complexity of programming parallel computers.

Kozyrakis’s recent research on cloud computing produced an adaptive algorithm for resource allocation, which, in collaboration with Google, enabled substantial improvement in their data centers, which already had a reputation as being the extremely efficient. His research in collaborationwith EPFL has led to a new operating system structure that considerably improves network communication.

Dimitrios Kyritsis has been named Adjunct Professor, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the School of Engineering (STI)
Over the past five years, Dimitrios Kyritsis has offered influential contributions to the field of information design and technology for sustainable manufacturing, focusing especially on closed-loop lifecycle management.

He is internationally recognized for his contributions, particularly as a pioneer in the use of technologies based on semantics and ontology for the lifecycle management of products and equipment; for the development and application of a new framework for the management of information concerning the lifecycle of products; and for the creation of a conceptual framework for the development of smart products and the Internet of Things.

Brice Lecampion has been named tenure-track Assistant Professor of Geoenergy in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC)
Brice Lecampion has contributed significantly to the field of hydraulic fracturing and the integrity of deep wells. His research topics are of crucial importance in the extraction of hydrocarbons, CO2 sequestration and geothermal energy. Lecampion developed a theoretical understanding of the initiation and propagation of multiple fractures in horizontal wells. Digital tools associated with these theories are now used in the industry to optimize drilling operations.

Brice Lecampion is a leading expert internationally in the theoretical conceptualization of geoenergy problems. In his previous scientific activities, he was able to make numerous benchmark contributions and to file several patents on the process of hydraulic fracturing. Geomechanics, reverse analysis and fluid mechanics are among the disciplines he uses to provide solutions to complex geoenergy problems.

Sebastian Maerkl has been appointed Associate Professor of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering (STI)
Sebastian Maerkl’s research aims to develop new microfluidic technologies and apply them to solve biological problems. His rare expertise allows him to combine the design of new tools with advanced research in biology. Sebastian Maerkl is internationally recognized for his many outstanding contributions. Particularly in combining synthetic biology and computational systems with microfluidics, he demonstrated that the expression of genes in vivo can be provided based on the binding energy profiles in vitro.

His studies will focus on five areas: the bioengineering of biosystems, the engineering of transcriptional regulatory networks, the engineering of genes and genomes, the engineering of biological systems de novo and the development of a new generation of diagnostic devices.

Sylvie Roke has been appointed Associate Professor of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering (STI)
Sylvie Roke’s research studies the structural, dynamic and biological properties of water, aqueous systems and aqueous interfaces. This research is essential to understanding the complexity of life and learning about its characteristics so as to develop new technologies.

Notably, by measuring the molecular composition of the surface of oil droplets, Roke unveiled aspects of the behavior of charged amphiphilic interfaces that had never been observed. Sylvie Roke plans to continue her research on solutions and aqueous interfaces by covering various scales — from the sub-nanometer to the microscopic — to better understand the role of water in biology. She will also apply her expertise to biotechnology in the areas of light-matter interaction and experimental optics.

Marie Violay has been named tenure-track Assistant Professor of Rock Mechanics in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC)
At EPFL, Marie Violay will develop an innovative scientific project in the field of deep geothermal energy. The project revolves around the development of knowledge and expertise in underground energy extraction with a rigorous scientific approach based on the thermo-hydro-mechanical coupling of physical processes. This is a unique scientific direction in rock mechanics.

She places continuum mechanics at the center of the analysis of rock behavior by including environmental conditions inherent to this type of problem: high mechanical stress (hundreds of mega-pascal), elevated temperatures (hundreds of degrees Celsius), and multiphase conditions of fluids found in pores. In addition, Marie Violay approaches this issue from an experimental angle. This approach is the most difficult, but it also carries the greatest potential for scientific impact.