Speakers

Assistant Professor 
Institute of Physics EPFL

Current research:

Head of the Laboratory of the Physics of Biological Systems

Sahand Jamal Rahi began his academic journey at MIT, where he completed his PhD in physics focusing on Casimir forces and quantum fluctuations. He later moved to The Rockefeller University as a postdoctoral fellow to transition into the field of biophysics and systems biology.

Since 2018, he has been leading the Laboratory of the Physics of Biological Systems at EPFL in Lausanne. His group utilizes a combination of theoretical physics, synthetic biology, and microfluidics to study how biological organisms process information and evolve.

Associate Professor 
Biozentrum University of Basel and Swiss Nanoscience Institute

Current research:

Head of the Research Group on Nanobiology

Roderick Lim studied physics in North Carolina before obtaining his PhD at the National University of Singapore. He continued his research as a postdoctoral scientist at the Biozentrum in Basel and received the Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Prize in 2008. In 2009 he was appointed as Argovia Professor and since 2014 he holds the professorship for nanobiology.

His research focuses on selective transport control and mechanobiology, aiming to contribute to cancer treatment.

Associate Professor 
Institute of Theoretical Physics of EPFL

Current research:

Head of the Laboratory of statistical Biophysics

Paulo de los Rios began his academic training at the University of Trieste, where he earned his PhD in physics focusing on the statistical physics of disordered systems. He subsequently held several research positions, including a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems.

In 2003, he joined EPFL in Lausanne, where he established the Laboratory of Statistical Biophysics. His research group applies the tools of theoretical physics and statistical mechanics to understand the complex behavior of biological macromolecules.

Associate Professor 
Biozentrum University of Basel

Current research:

Head of Research Group on Physical Mechanisms in Bacterial Multicellular Development

Knut Drescher obtained a Master of Physics 1st class from the University of Oxford. He proceeded with a PhD in biophysics at the University of Cambridge in the Goldstein Lab.

After a postdoctoral position in molecular microbiology at Princeton University, he lead a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology from 2014 to 2021. He was appointed professor in biophysics from 2015 to 2021 at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. Since 2021 he has been an associate professor at the Biozentrum in Basel.

His group’s research explores processes that determine the dynamics of bacteria in communities.

Full Professor 
Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering ETH Zurich

Current research:

Head of the Bio Engineering Laboratory

Andreas Hierlemann studied chemistry at the Universität Tübingen and received his PhD on detection of organic volatiles. He held postdoctoral positions at Texas A&M University and at Sandia National Laboratories. From 1999-2004 he led the Physical Electronics Laboratory at ETH Zurich, was named assistant professor for microsensors in 2004, and since 2008 he has been a full professor at the BSSE.

Prof. Hierlemann investigates biolelectronic interfacing and his group’s research spans CMOS microsystems, microfluidics, and neuroscience.