Four professors appointed at EPFL

Elena Dubikovskaya has been appointed Tenure Track Assistant Professor of bio-organic chemistry at the School of Basic Sciences (FSB). She is an advocate of an interdisciplinary approach, combining synthetic chemistry, optical imaging, and an understanding of cellular functions at molecular level to find solutions to fundamental problems in biology and the medical sciences. This scientist has developed, in particular, new and non-invasive imaging techniques for the study of processes that are specifically involved in the growth of cancerous cells. She will perform her research work in the context of the new Chair in biological chemistry, at EPFL’s Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering.

Hilal Lashuel has been promoted to Associate Professor for Life Sciences at the School of Life Sciences (SV). He is leading an innovative research program based on multidisciplinary approaches to molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases. The impact of the results he has so far obtained on the formation of amyloids has been highly significant and has strongly influenced research in this domain of science. On arriving at EPFL, he became involved without delay in the teaching of BA/MA students in the SSV section. Most of Mr. Lashuel’s research work is financed by subsidies from outside EPFL, among which are the highly prestigious Human Frontiers Science Program Young Investigator Award and the ERC-Starting Young Investigator Award.

Fabio Nobile has been appointed Associate Professor of Mathematics at the School of Basic Sciences (FSB). He will hold the CADMOS (Center for Advanced Modeling Science) Chair, which involves the Blue Gene/P supercomputer. This project is supported by the cantons of Vaud and Geneva, and associates the Universities of Geneva (UNIGE), Lausanne (UNIL), and EPFL. Fabio Nobile is one of the most experienced experts in the areas of the quantification of uncertainty for computational models; the digital approximation of stochastic partial differential equations; and scientific calculation. This area of specialization, which is currently under-represented at EPFL, is of considerable importance for a number of institutions within the school that are modeling real phenomena and perform high-performance calculations, as in the MATHICSE Institute or the CADMOS center.

Mario Paolone has been appointed as Associate Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the School of Engineering (STI). He has accepted the EOS Holding Chair, and will have in particular as his mission to develop solutions designed to manage the growing complexity of electricity networks. Mario Paolone is an expert in the area of electrical systems. He has made major contributions to many fields: these include the protection of power systems against lightning; the experimental description of how power lines and cables – both aerial and underground – react to external disturbances; and procedures for localizing problems in active distribution networks, based on the analysis of electromagnetic transients emitted by lightning.