Doctoral Program Thesis Distinction

Each year, a distinction is granted to a selection of very high quality theses, in order to highlight the doctoral candidates’ research work and their scientific merit. For each doctoral program, nominated graduates are selected on the basis of their oral examination. Then the program committee evaluates the nominees and rewards the best 8%.

2023 laureates for each program

  • Giuseppe GALBIATI – Preserving suspended structures with light façades (1960-1980). Architectural study and retrofitting proposals
  • Samuel MENDES LEITAO – Time-Resolved Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy and Single-Molecule Spectroscopy
  • Yang ZHAO – Countering T cell exhaustion and senescence for enhanced adoptive T cell therapies against solid tumors
  • Martin MÜLLER – On the use of applied machine learning and digital infrastructure to leverage social media data in health and epidemiology
  • Rémi ANDRES – Catalytic enantioselective Pictet-Spengler reaction of carbonyl compounds: Development and application to the asymmetric total synthesis of indol[…]
  • Kevin JABLONKA – Toward data-driven materials design: From atoms to pilot plants
  • Lorenz MANKER – Acetal-Stabilized Carbohydrates as Novel Platform Molecules for Renewable Polymer Production
  • Manuel CORDOVA – NMR Crystallography in the Big Data Era: New Methods and Applications Powered by Machine Learning
  • Rahul GUPTA – Methods for Grid-aware Operation and Planning of Active Distribution Networks
  • Clément VIGNAC – Equivariant Neural Architectures for Representing and Generating Graphs
  • Amir YOUSSEFI Ultra-high quantum coherent and scalable superconducting circuit optomechanics, from topological lattices to quantum storage
  • Julia GRANACHER – Decision support for the design of integrated biorefineries
  • Kristina GLIGORIC – Computational Approaches for Studying Dietary Behaviors with Digital Traces
  • Ehsan MOHAMMADPOUR – A Network Calculus Analysis of Asynchronous Mechanisms in Time-Sensitive Networks
  • Jakab TARDOS – Space-Efficient Representations of Graphs
  • Kartik WAGHMARE – Positive Definite Completions and Continuous Graphical Models
  • Federica PAGLIALUNGA – Nucleation, propagation, and scale dependence of laboratory frictional ruptures; implications for earthquake mechanics
  • Simone FRASCA – High-Kinetic Inductance Superconducting Technology for Quantum Applications
  • Sadegh KAMAEI BAHMAEI – Energy-Efficient Electronic Functions Based on the Co-integration of 2D and Ferroelectric Materials
  • Clémentine LIPP – Combination of dielectrophoretic and hydrodynamic traps for the controlled contact between cells or beads and application to adhesion assays
  • Ruxandra-Andreea LAMBUTA – Whole genome doubling promotes tumorigenesis through loss of chromatin segregation and compartment repositioning
  • Irene FERRETTO – Laser powder bed fusion of Fe-based shape memory alloys for novel structural metamaterials and “smart” structures
  • Robin GIROD – Multidimensional Electron Imaging of Catalyst Layer Materials
  • Matteo HIRSCH – Controlling the Microstructure and Composition of 3D Printed Soft Load-Bearing Hydrogels
  • Galina LIMORENKO – Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Complexity of Tau pathology
  • Marco MILANO – Targeted regeneration of spinal cord neurons across a complete injury restores walking
  • Luca ANTOGNINI – Contact Design for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells
  • Stefano FALLETTA – Self-Interaction and Polarons in Density Functional Theory
  • Baptiste FREI – A Gyrokinetic Moment Model of the Plasma Boundary in Fusion Devices
  • Simone GARGIULO – Electromagnetic processes of nuclear excitation: from direct photoabsorption to free electron and muon capture
  • Lorenzo TALAMANCA – Statistical physics of periodic biological processes

2022 laureates for each program

  • Pieter VLUGTER – Investigation of femtosecond laser-tuned thermomechanical properties of fused silica
  • Anna PAGANI – Towards sustainability through housing functions: a systems perspective for the study of Swiss tenants’ residential mobility
  • Lorenzo TALÀ – Characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa mechanosensing through label-free imaging of type IV pili
  • Barbora LAVICKOVA – Towards an artificial cell: Development of a system which self-regenerates the protein components of the PURE system in microfluidic reactors
  • Joseph LEMAITRE – Modeling infectious disease dynamics towards informed public health interventions, with applications on COVID-19 and cholera
  • Andronikos SKIADOPOULOS – Welded moment connections with highly dissipative panel zones for enhanced seismic performance of steel moment frames
  • Seonghoon CHOI – High-order geometric integrators for nonadiabatic molecular quantum dynamics and their applications to explore conical intersections
  • Sevan Mleh HABESHIAN – Methods for the generation of large combinatorial macrocycle libraries
  • Mingming WANG – Ring-Opening Reactions of Aminocyclopropanes and Aminocyclobutanes
  • Aurélien WILLAUER – Stabilizing Unusual Oxidation States of Lanthanides in Molecular Complexes: Synthesis, Properties, and Reactivity
  • Thomas BAUMELER – Bulk and surface engineering to improve performance and stability of perovskite solar cells
  • Lorenzo BERTONI – Reshaping Perception for Autonomous Driving with Semantic Keypoints
  • Michaël DEFFERRARD – Leveraging topology, geometry, and symmetries for efficient Machine Learning
  • Thanh-An Michel PHAM – Nonlinear Inverse Problems in Quantitative Phase Imaging
  • Fanny VITULLO – Miniature and Minimalistic Neutron Detectors for Online High-Resolution Experiments in the Zero-Power Reactor CROCUS
  • Alina WALCH – Spatio-Temporal Estimation of Renewable Energy Potential in Built Environments using Big Data
  • Quentin POSVA – On the projectivity of some moduli spaces of varieties
  • Tomas MASÁK – Covariance Estimation for Random Surfaces beyond Separability
  • Evgenii GLUSHKOV – Exploring optically active defects in wide-bandgap materials using fluorescence microscopy
  • Remco VAN ERP – Near-junction microfluidic cooling for high power-density GaN-on-Si electronics: A wafer, device, packaging, and system-level investigation
  • Mark HANSON – A systematic CRISPR approach to understanding the role of Drosophila antimicrobial peptides in immunity in vivo
  • Dirk LAUINGER – Vehicle-to-Grid for Reliable Frequency Regulation
  • Tzu-Hsien SHEN – Electron probing of oxygen-evolving oxide catalysts
  • Kewen LEI – Mechanical Immunoengineering of T Cells for Enhanced Cancer Immunotherapy
  • Sina ABDOLHOSSEINZADEH – 2D Material Based Inks For Room Temperature Printed Electronics
  • Lucie DIXSAUT – Where does the engram come from? Study of prefrontal cortex inputs during memory consolidation
  • Georgios FOUSTOUKOS – Anatomical and functional characterization of neocortical circuits involved in transforming whisker sensory processing into goal-directed licking
  • Aleksandr LEITIS – Metasurfaces for label-free biosensing mid-infrared optics and active photonic devices
  • Laurie-Lou SENAUD – Electrical Losses Mitigation in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells
  • Dunja SIMICIC – Advanced metabolite mapping at ultra-high field using 1H-MRS, 1H-MRSI and macromolecules: applications in a rat model of type C hepatic encephalopathy
  • Elena SESÉ SANSA – Collective behavior and emerging patterns in dense dry aligning active matter
  • Guillaume PIETRZYK – Precision measurement of neutral charm meson mixing parameters
  • Enrica SORIA – Model Predictive Control of Aerial Swarms

2021 laureates for each program

  • Laura TRAZIC – De la décoration par les ombres Traduction de méthodes picturales dans l’architecture française des XVIIIème et XIXème siècles
  • Mikhail NIKOLAEV – Engineering next generation organoids through guided stem cell self-organisation
  • Timo REY – Organisation and dynamics of mitochondria and their RNA
  • Jan BRÜTTING – Optimum design of low environmental impact structures through component reuse
  • Josué GEHRING – Leveraging meteorological radars to investigate the influence of atmospheric dynamics on snowfall microphysics
  • Shiqi HUANG – Etching nanopores in single-layer graphene with a sub-angstrom resolution in molecular sieving
  • Homa MOHAMMADI PEYHANI – Algorithms and flowchart for the design of synthetic biochemical networks
  • Bastian MURIEL – New Strategies for the Functionalization of Alkenes Exploiting Tethering Chemistry and Ring Strain
  • Abdusalom SULEYMANOV – Novel Triazenes and Solid State Luminogens
  • Yongpeng LIU – Novel Interfacial Characterization and Surface Engineering in Semiconductor Electrodes for Optimized Solar Fuel Production
  • Daniel HARASIM – The Learnability of the Grammar of Jazz: Bayesian Inference of Hierarchical Structures in Harmony
  • Arnout BECKERS – Cryogenic MOSFET Modeling for Large-Scale Quantum Computing
  • Weipeng HE – Deep Learning Approaches for Auditory Perception in Robotics
  • Gian PIREDDA – Quantitative Microstructural Imaging for Clinical Use
  • Suraj SRINIVAS – Gradient-based Methods for Deep Model Interpretability
  • Guillaume JEANMONOD – Effects of impurities and local behavior characterization using active thermography on solid oxide electrolysis cells
  • Maxime COUVERT – Empirical Evidence on the Effectiveness of Shareholder Democracy
  • Luigi DE ROSA – Non-smooth solutions in incompressible fluid dynamics
  • Chiara CORNELIO – Mechanical behaviour of fluid lubricated faults during earthquake nucleation and propagation
  • Alberto CIARROCCHI – Electronic, excitonic and magnetic properties of two-dimensional heterostructures
  • Nicolò OLIVA – At the end of scaling: 2D materials for computing and sensing applications
  • Andreas LEBER – Soft functional fibers for mechanical sensing and actuation
  • Korbinian BAUMGÄRTL – Magnonic crystals with reconfigurable magnetic defects for spin-based microwave electronics
  • Jian WANG – Functional and Responsive Polymers via Controlled Radical Polymerization
  • Naïg CHENAIS – Photovoltaic stimulation of retinal microcircuit for vision restoration
  • Adrien DESCLOUX – Development of novel experimental and computational methods for three-dimensional coherent and super-resolution microscopy
  • Dora MAHECIC – High-throughput and adaptive super-resolution fluorescence microscopy of organelles
  • Gabriel CUOMO – Large charge, semiclassics and superfluids : from broken symmetries to conformal field theories
  • Jiangtao ZHOU – Nanoscale Characterization of Amyloid Fibrils and Biomacromolecules by Atomic Force Microscopy Approaches
  • Karla BANJAC – In situ nanoscale studies of copper-based catalysts for carbon dioxide electroreduction
  • Matteo MACCHINI – Personalized Body-Machine Interfaces for Advanced Human-Robot Interaction

2020 laureates for each program

  • Colas DROIN – Inference methods for the study of interacting biological oscillators in single-cells
  • Lucas FREROT – Bridging scales in wear modeling with volume integral methods for elastic-plastic contact
  • Numa Joy BERTOLA – Measurement-system design for structural identification
  • Juan Carlos QUEZADA RIVERA – Alternative Scenarios for the Development of Oil Palm in the Tropics: Carbon and Nutrients Dynamics
  • Mao RUNZE – Aliphatic Carboxylic Acids as Coupling Partners in Carbon-Heteroatom Bond-Forming Reactions
  • Tamara MARIC – Development of novel tools for imaging of metabolic fluxes in vivo
  • Michelle Susanne FREI – Photoactivatable Silicon Rhodamines for Super-Resolution Microscopy
  • Maria MASID BARCON – Modeling metabolic and signaling pathways in cancer cells
  • Ya-Ping HSIEH – Convergence without Convexity: Sampling, Optimization, and Games
  • Irem BOYBAT KARA – Multi-memristive synaptic architectures for training neural networks
  • Thomas BOLTON – Development and application of dynamic functional connectivity methods to elucidate the neural underpinnings of human behaviour with functional magnetic resonance imaging
  • Eliott Philippe GUENAT – Advanced design methods and non-ideal gas lubrication applied to aerodynamic bearings
  • Fabian MÖNKEBERG – High-order essentially nonoscillatory methods based on radial basis functions 
  • Federico CIARDO – Hydraulic stimulation of pre-existing discontinuities in tight rocks
  • Jun MA – Tri-gate technologies for high-performance power GaN devices
  • Dmitrii UNUCHEK – Spin-valley optoelectronics based on two-dimensional materials
  • Adrien DOERIG – Crowding and the Architecture of the Visual System
  • Flavien GYGER – Brillouin scattering in gas-filled hollow-core fibres
  • Edoardo MARTINO – Electrons leave the flatland: out-of-plane charge dynamics in layered materials 
  • Maxim KARPOV – Dynamics and Applications of Dissipative Kerr Solitons 
  • Violaine BELLÉE – Amplitude analysis for the measurement of the photon polarisation in B rightarrow K pi pi gamma decays
  • Alicja Barbara ROELOFSEN – An Institutional Approach to Normative Distributed Robotics for Mixed Societies of Humans and Robots

2019 laureates for each program

  • Damiano ARENA – Towards semantics-driven modelling and simulation of context-aware manufacturing systems
  • Judith DROUILLES – Quartiers résidentiels périurbains en transition : Comparaison multicritère de scénarios prospectifs à l’horizon 2050
  • Xiaokang LI – Label-free plasmonic biosensors for real-time live cell analysis
  • Jake YEUNG – Tissue-specific circadian transcriptional regulation
  • Fabian BARRAS – When dynamic cracks meet disorder: A journey along the fracture process zone
  • Aida CAMESELLE MOLARES – Two-dimensional crack growth in FRP laminates and sandwich panels
  • Suzanne Maria JANSZE – Molecular nanostructures based on polyfunctional clathrochelate complexes
  • Franck LE VAILLANT – Photoredox-Catalyzed Decarboxylation for the Transfer of Alkynes and Nitriles Using Hypervalent Iodine Reagents
  • Ydna Marie QUESTELL-SANTIAGO – Production, characterization and upgrading of biomass-derived acetal-stabilized carbohydrates
  • Qiuliyang YU – Cofactor sensing proteins for metabolic assays at point-of-care
  • Adrien BESSON – Stratégie versus composition
  • Asja DERVISKADIC – Synchronized Sensing for Wide-Area Situational Awareness of Electrical Grids in Non-Stationary Operating Conditions
  • Andreas Martin KETTNER – Real-Time State Estimation and Voltage Stability Assessment of Power Grids: From Theoretical Foundations to Practical Applications
  • Silvan SUTER – Linking Morphology and Multi-Physical Transport in Structured Electrodes
  • Hélène RUFFIEUX – Large-scale variational inference for Bayesian joint regression modelling of high-dimensional genetic data
  • Predrag ANDRIC – The mechanics of crack-tip dislocation emission and twinning
  • Elena BATTISTELLO – Novel therapeutic strategies targeting the B-cell receptor signaling and antigen presentation pathways in non-Hodgkin lymphoma
  • Simone HAAG – Identification and characterisation of small-molecule inhibitors targeting STING
  • Erwan LUCAS – Physics of Dissipative Kerr Solitons in Optical Microresonators and Application to Low-noise Frequency Synthesis
  • Orly TARUN – Dynamic Imaging of Lipid Membranes by Means of Water
  • Rogério CABETE DE JESUS JORGE – A moment-based model for plasma dynamics at arbitrary collisionality
  • Mikhail IVANOV – Precision theoretical methods for large-scale structure of the Universe
  • Michael SCHENK – A novel approach to Landau damping of transverse collective instabilities in future hadron colliders
  • Salman FARAJI – Towards Robust Bipedal Locomotion From Simple Models To Full-Body Compliance
  • Zhenishbek ZHAKYPOV – Design Methodology for Engineering Multifunctional Mesoscale Robots

2018 laureates for each program

  • Sonia CURNIER – Espace public comme objet per se ? Une analyse critique de la conception contemporaine
  • Dordaneh ETEZADI Mid-Infrared plasmonic nanoantennas for ultrasensitive detection of proteins and their secondary structure
  • Elena KATSYUBA – Role of ACMSD in regulation of NAD+ metabolism and mitochondrial function
  • Kristina WOODRUFF – Microfluidic platforms for high-throughput mammalian cell printing, transfection, and dosage-dependent studies
  • Luca CARRARO Ecohydrological and Metacommunity Studies of Proliferative Kidney Disease Spread in Freshwater Salmonid Fish
  • Davide WÜTHRICH – Extreme Hydrodynamic impact onto buildings
  • Dominik KUBICKI – Surface-Enhanced NMR Spectroscopy
  • Adrian MARBERGER – Advances in Vanadium-Based Catalyst Research for the Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx by NH3
  • Diogo MATEUS RODRIGUES – Concept of Variants and Invariants for Reaction Systems, with Application to Estimation, Control and Optimization
  • Kasparas RAKSTYS – Molecularly Engineered Hole Transporting Materials for High Performance Perovskite Solar Cells
  • Fabian BRAUN – Noninvasive Stroke Volume Monitoring by Electrical Impedance Tomography
  • Min LUO Dynamic Modeling of Magnetic Components for Circuit Simulation of Power Electronic Systems
  • Francesca STRADOLINI – IoT Bio-Electronic Multi-Panel Device for On-line Monitoring of Anaesthesia Delivery
  • Saurabh TEMBHURNE – Modeling and experimental demonstration of an integrated photoelectrochemical hydrogen generator working under concentrated irradiation
  • Timothée POUCHON – Effective models and numerical homogenization methods for long time wave propagation in heterogeneous media
  • Dimitri WYSS Motivic and p-adic Localization Phenomena
  • Outi SUPPONEN – Collapse phenomena of deformed cavitation bubbles
  • Ioulia TZOUVADAKI – Nanoscale Sensors for Ultrasensitive Label-free Detection of Cancer Biomarkers and Monitoring of Therapeutic Compounds
  • Francesca VOLPETTI – High-throughput microfluidic platforms applied to immunoassay-based diagnostics and environmental monitoring
  • Andrea ALBER – Single live cell monitoring of protein turnover reveals intercellular variability and cell cycle dependence of degradation rates
  • Zhi LUO – Advanced characterization methods for self-assembled organization on nanoparticles
  • Suzanne VERHEYDEN – Thermal Activation, Intermittency and Size Effects in the Plastic Deformation of Cast Aluminium Microwires
  • Jérémie WERNER – Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells: Toward Affordable Ultra-High Efficiency Photovoltaics?
  • Nikolay BYKOVSKIY – HTS high current cable for fusion application
  • Mauro FANCIULLI – Spin polarization and attosecond time delay in photoemission from solids
  • Duccio MALINVERNI Statistical Analysis of Protein Sequences: A Coevolutionary Study of Molecular Chaperones
  • Anna TEPLUKHINA Realistic multi-machine tokamak profile simulations and numerical ramp-down optimization using the RAPTOR code
  • Bahar HAGHIGHAT Design, Modeling, and Control Methods for Fluid-Mediated Programmable Self-Assembly of Resource-Constrained Robotic Modules

2017 laureates for each program

  • Michael Robert DOYLE – Potentialities of the Urban Volume: Mapping underground resource potential and deciphering spatial economies and configurations of multi-level urban spaces
  • Ana MOURA BASTOS DE FERNANDES PÓVOAS – Connecting space and justice in metropolitan Porto. The discourses of inhabitants on the spatial dimension of justice
  • David KOSSLER – Chiral Cyclopentadienyl Ruthenium (II) Complexes: Synthesis and Applications in Catalysis
  • Siri Camee VAN KEULEN –  Computational Investigation of Intracellular Signalling Cascades: from G-Protein- Coupled Receptors to Adenylyl Cyclase
  • Norman PELLET – Investigations on hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites for high performance solar cells
  • Mathieu Steven PREVOT – Investigating and controlling charge carrier behavior in p-type delafossite CuFeO2 photocathodes for solar fuel production
  • Julien René FAGEOT – Gaussian versus Sparse Stochastic Processes: Construction, Regularity, Compressibility
  • Alhussein FAWZI – Robust image classification: analysis and applications
  • Elvira PIRONDINI – A multimodal framework for the design and the assessment of robotic-assisted treatments for motor disorders
  • Houxue HUANG – Flow Boiling Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer of Refrigerants in Multi-microchannel Evaporators under Steady and Transient States

  • Vincent BOGOUSSLAVSKY – Three Essays on Predictability and Seasonality in the Cross-Section of Stock Returns
  • Alexandru ICHIM – Physics-based Reconstruction and Animation of Humans
  • Marco MONDELLI – From Polar to Reed-Muller Codes: Unified Scaling, Non-standard Channels, and a Proven Conjecture
  • Goran RADANOVIC – Elicitation and Aggregation of Crowd Information
  • Van Thang PHAM – Erdos Distinct Distances Problem and Extensions over Finite Spaces
  • Ondrej BUDÁC – Multiscale methods for Stokes flow in heterogeneous media
  • Dmitry OVCHINNIKOV – Influence of structural and electrostatic disorder on transport properties of monolayers of two-dimensional semiconductors
  • Edoardo BALDINI – Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Collective Excitations in Strongly Interacting and Correlated Quantum Systems
  • Natalia CHEPIGA – Dimerization and exotic criticality in spin-S chains
  • Georgios KARANANAS – Poincaré, Scale and Conformal Symmetries: Gauge Perspective and Cosmological Ramifications
  • Fabio RIVA – Verification and validation procedures with applications to plasma-edge turbulence simulations