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Nobel laureate Konstantin Novoselov as first EPFL Fellow

Published:01.06.26 — École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has named Professor Konstantin Novoselov as the first-ever EPFL Fellow, inaugurating a new honorary title created to recognize eminent scientific personalities of exceptional international stature. He will be affiliated as an EPFL Fellow with the Institute of Physics in the School of Basic Sciences.

The Muoniverse Collaboration brings together Swiss expertise to develop next generation muon accelerator technologies. © Muoniverse.

EPFL drives accelerator design for new Swiss muon research centre

Published:24.03.26 — The Swiss Confederation has launched Muoniverse, a National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) to advance muon science. EPFL will play a leading role in developing innovative acceleration schemes for low-emittance muon beams, supporting the design of a future national muon facility.

When hydrogen locks ice into a quantum dance

Published:17.03.26 — Deep inside giant planets, water and hydrogen are squeezed to enormous pressures. Researchers at EPFL show that under these conditions, ice can trap hydrogen molecules and force them into an unusual quantum dance.

When light boosts protein evolution

Published:09.03.26 — EPFL researchers have developed a light-based method that can produce proteins that switch states, respond to signals, and even compute, using light and the cell cycle.

Photograph of a manufactured 100-mm wafer hosting hundreds of copper Damascene lithium tantalate modulators. Credit: Lin et al 2026.

Copper damascene process brings electronics and photonics together

Published:02.03.26 — EPFL researchers have, for the first time, applied the semiconductor industry’s standard copper wiring process to ferroelectric thin film photonics. By building lithium tantalate modulators with copper instead of gold, they remove a major barrier to 3D integration with advanced CMOS electronics and move optical interconnects closer to large scale deployment in data centers and AI clusters.

Past & present at one table…

EDPY Program directors (left to right): Prof. O. Schneider (2009 – 2014), Prof. V. Savona (2015 – 2018), Prof. F. Mila (2018 – present)

Klaus Kern celebrates the 100th thesis of his laboratory!

For the past 28 years, Klaus Kern has directed his doctoral students, young researchers in the training phase, leaving them all the freedom required to be successful in developing their ideas.

This important milestone, a first at EPFL, highlights not only the huge research activity led in his laboratory, but also his qualities in attracting talented scientists to our school.

Indeed, one of the important roles of laboratories hosted by academic institutions such as EPFL is to train the next generation of scientists and leaders be it in the fields of academic research, entrepreneurship, or the society at large.

In the frame of the Doctoral Program in Physics, we wish him a successful continuation to this 100th and we congratulate him and all the people in his department for this exceptional achievement.