MIR Team

MIR is a team of highly qualified and motivated researchers coming from various disciplines. MIR’s doctoral students write their thesis during a 4-year period whilst either working at MIR or in their professional environment.

Staff

Head of Laboratory

Prof. Dr. Matthias P. Finger

CV in English

Full Professor

[+41 21 69] 30001

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Born in 1955, Matthias Finger, a Swiss and French citizen, received his Ph.D. in Education in 1986 and his Ph.D. in Political Science in 1988, both from the University of Geneva. After having been Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, New York (1989-1991) and Associate Professor at Columbia University, New York (1992-1994), Matthias Finger was appointed Full Professor at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration in Lausanne in 1995. He was appointed Full Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in October 2002. Between 2003 and 2009 he was the Dean of EPFL’s School of Continuing Education. As of 2009, he is in charge of executive education at EPFL’s Middle East campus. He is the co-editor in-chief of the Journal on Competition and Regulation in Network Industries since 2008. He has been appointed Area Director for Transport at the Florence School of Regulation in 2010. Matthias Finger’s main interest is on the de- and re-regulation of the network industries (postal services, telecommunications, electricity, railways, air transport, urban public transport, water). An additional research focus is currently being developed on the intelligent governance of large urban systems. Matthias Finger is a member of the Swiss Federal Electricity Regulatory Comission (ELCOM) since 2007.

Personal Assistant

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Patricia Defferrard

Personal Assistant

Tel: +41 21 693 0002

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Post-Doc

Paul van Baal is a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair Management of Network Industries at EPFL, where he completed his PhD titled ‘Policy analysis during socio-technical energy transitions: three essays on the Swiss electricity sector’ in September 2019. He further holds an MSc degree from EPFL and a BSc degree from Amsterdam University College. He combines his interests in sustainability, the energy transition, and modeling in his research, which focuses on electricity market design, policy, and regulation to manage the challenges of the energy transition.

PhDs Candidates

Raphaël Klein is a PhD student in the Chair MIR, College of Management of Technology. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering along with a Master of Science in Engineering and Policy Analysis from the Delft University of Technology. Raphael has experience in serious game modelling, agent based modelling and policy analysis. His PhD focuses on the governing of energy transition in Switzerland in particular combining his interests in large socio-technical systems, sustainability and policy emergence.

Astrid R.N. Haas is an urban economist and a PhD candidate at the Chair for Management of Network Industries as part of the Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems initiative. She holds a Masters Degree in International Economics and International Development from Johns Hopkins University and has worked in Kenya, South Sudan, Senegal, Rwanda, Malawi, amongst other countries. She is currently based in Kampala (Uganda) and as an external PhD student, she is also working as the Senior Country Economist for Cities for the policy research think tank, the International Growth Centre. In 2016, she was nominated by the University of Cape Town as one of Africa’s Young Leaders. Her research interests are in urban governance in Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular municipal finance and urban.

Michael Sudarkasa is a PhD candidate, focusing on the regulation of off-grid renewable energy systems. A commercial attorney by training, he is an external PhD student and also heads Africa Business Group, an African economic development company that specializes in economic development consulting, project management, and capacity development related to the facilitation of increased private sector participation in the development agenda of African governments. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School and earned his BA (High Honors in History) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Engin Zeki is a PhD candidate at the Chair for Management of Network Industries at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He holds a Master’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Middle East Technical University and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Sabanci University. He gained professional experience at various private companies related to business intelligence in energy and telecommunications sectors. He has worked in Business Intelligence Specialist and Business Intelligence Consultant positions. His PhD focuses on assessment of “Centralised Services” as a mean to accelerate the development of the Single European Sky (SES).

Jiayun Shen is a PhD candidate at Chair MIR, College of Management of Technology, EPFL, Switzerland. She holds a Master degree in Energy Efficient and Sustainable Building from the Technische Universität München and a Dipl-Ing degree in Utility and Environmental Engineering from Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau in Germany. She earned her BA in Building Technology from Tongji University in China. Having been a research assistant at Institute of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design at TUM, she gained professional experience related to Renewable Energy and Energy Management. She also gained practical experience in Facility Management by working at Bosch. Currently, she works part-time in the open innovation team of Swiss Post where she participates in the interdisciplinary research project “Digital Zürich 2025”. Her PhD focuses on the “Smart and Sustainable Cities”, especially on “Smart Energy”.

Pascal Bücheler is a PhD candidate at the Chair for Management of Network Industries (MIR) at EPFL. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Zurich. During his studies, he specialized in the fields of Econometrics and Computational Economics. Alongside his studies he worked as a student research assistant at the University of Zurich and as a research assistant in the Statistics Department of the Swiss National Bank (SNB). He gained practical experience in data analysis and data mining when working closely with a Swiss FinTech Startup. He is an external PhD student and works in parallel as a data scientist in the group unit PostMail at the Swiss Post. In his PhD research, he is focusing on the potential of big data and the corresponding analyses and management for postal operators, as well as for the postal industry in general.