WPF News

Congratulations to professors Véronique Michaud and Mackenzie Mathis for being promoted to Full and Associate Professor respectively.

Véronique Michaud is a professor of materials at the Institute of Materials at EPFL. Her research focuses on composite materials, functional materials and structures and sustainable and energy efficient manufacturing of composites.

Mackenzie Mathis is a professor of neuroscience at the School of Life Sciences at EPFL. Her expertise lies in systems neuroscience, animal behavior and computer vision.

Congratulations to Helma Wenners for winning the Wilhelm Ostwald Medal for the development of bio-inspired catalysts and functional peptide systems. The award is conferred by the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig for outstanding achievements in the natural sciences and engineering.

Helma Wennemers is a Full Professor of Organic Chemistry. Her Wennemers research group develops organic synthetic methods to tackle questions in chemical biology and materials research.

Congratulations to Petra Dittrich for being promoted to Full Professor for Bioanalysis at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at the ETHZ. Her bioanalytics group focuses on microfluidics-based technology with applications in the life sciences.

Congratulations to Gisou van der Goot for being elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This election is in recognition of her contributions to cell biology and her role in advancing the understanding of how cells interact with the environment.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an honorary society that brings together and celebrates figures in various fields who have shown excellence in their respective expertise.

Congratulations to Paola Picotti for winning the Otto Nägeli Prize in Medical Research for her development of a technology capable of analysing thousands of protein structures simulaneously. Her research group has focused on methods of scanning protein shapes and developing a technology that was faster and more sensitive at detecting physiological and pathological changes.

The Otto Nägeli Prize is awarded every two years to outstanding figures in Swiss medical research.

Congratulations to Suliana Manley for winning the ERC Synergy Grant alongside two colleagues for their collaborative work on the joint project MitoContact. The project investigates how mitochondria come into contact and communicate with other cell components.

The ERC Synergy grant is bestowed upon projects that require the collaboration of multiple researchers to work on it jointly. The grant will support the team on their project for the next six years.

Congratulations to Eleni Chatzi for winning this year’s Dandelion Entrepreneurship Award in the category „Inspirer & Entrepreneurial Educator“. The Dandelion Entrepreneurship Award recognizes professors who demonstrate a strong commitment to fostering entrepreneurship.

Eleni Chatzi’s research advances data-driven methods to observe, assess, and predict the behaviour of infrastructure and other complex systems, integrating sensor technologies, machine learning, and high-fidelity computational simulations. She actively supports start-up initiatives, and guides students and researchers in translating innovative ideas into real-world impact. 

Congratulations to Ursula Keller and Anastasia Ailamaki for being elected earlier this year to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Ursula Keller was elected for her contributions to ultrafast lasers and attosecond technologies and Anastasia Ailamaki for her contributions to database systems and their performance evaluation. 

Prospective members are nominated by current members based on their contributions to engineering, research, education, engineering leadership or related endeavors.

Gender-based violence: Understanding, Preventing, Transforming

Date: Monday March 9, 2026

Time: 12:00 hand out snacks, 12:30 – 13:45 panel discussion and Q & A

Location: ETH Zurich, HG E41 (overflow HG E3)

Congratulations to Laura Heyderman for winning the Charpak-Ritz Prize for her innovations in nanomagnetic devices, her observations of emergent magnetic monopoles and phase transitions in artificial spin ice and the development of synchrotron x-ray magnetic tomography.

The Charpak-Ritz Prize, a joint prize between the Société Française de Physique and the Swiss Physical Society, is awarded to scientists or scientist teams who have produced significant contributions to the field of Physics, alternating between France and Switzerland every year.

Congratulations to Anne-Florence Bitbol and Maryam Kamgarpour for both being promoted to Associate Professor at EPFL. Anne-Florence Bitbol’s research at the School of Life Sciences at EPFL investigates the coevolution and structure of proteins, as well as the spatial dynamics of populations. Maryam Kamgarpour’s work in Mechanical Engineering at the School of Engineering at EPFL is about theoretical frameworks for trustworthy automation in areas such as intelligent transportation systems, smart grids and energy systems, multi-robot systems for assembly and construction, and air traffic control.

The WPF and the SNSF jointly hosted an event on November 25, 2025 surrounding Dr. Anna Feller receiving the Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize. A panel discussion was held on the topic „Career perspectives for postdocs“ with the panelists Dr. Anna Feller, Prof. Dr. Verdon Taylor, Dr. Regina Notz and led by Prof. Dr. Rachel Grange, with senior PhD students and postdoctoral students in mind.

After this, Prof. Dr. Verdon Taylor of the SNSF spoke about the work the SNSF does to support research careers, which includes the Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize, awarded to an outstanding woman researcher each year. Following this, Anna Feller gave a talk on her innovative work on plant speciation and diversity that earned her this award. Verdon Taylor then presented the Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize to her.

The event was held in the Semperaula at the ETH Zentrum. Some impressions:

Copyright photos: ©SNF/Julia Foster