Born in the United States, Suliana Manley studied at Rice University where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics in 1997, cum laude. She continued her studies at Harvard University, where she earned a PhD in physics under the supervision of Prof. Dave Weitz in 2004. After this, she conducted postdoctoral research on lipid bilayer and red blood cell membrane dynamics at MIT.
She subsequently went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher in the cell biology laboratory of Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz at the National Institutes of Health (USA). During this time, she developed a highly promising optical method (sptPALM) for studying the dynamics of large ensembles of single proteins in membranes and inside cells.
She became a tenure-track assistant professor of physics at the EPFL in 2009, was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2016, and to full professor in 2022.
Curriculum Vitae
2022-present Full professor, Department of Physics, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
2016-2022 Associate professor, Department of Physics, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
2016-2017 Visiting professor, Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science, Caltech, Pasadena, CA
2009-2016 Assistant professor, Department of Physics, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
2006-2009 National Research Council postdoctoral fellow, NICHD, NIH, Bethesda, MD
2004-2006 Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA
2004 PhD Physics, Harvard University.
Dissertation: “Mechanical Stability of Fractal Colloidal Gels.”
1997 B.A. Physics and Mathematics, cum laude, Rice University
2019-2024 European Research Council Consolidator Grant
2019 Medal for Innovation in Light Microscopy, Royal Microscopical Society
2016-2019 Sinergia Grant
2009-2015 European Research Council Starting Grant
(non-exhaustive list)