994 new EPFL graduates
© 2017 Christian Brun
EPFL's graduation ceremony for Master’s students was held on Saturday at the Swiss Tech Convention Center. It was a day filled with emotion for the students.
At the graduation ceremony held on Saturday morning, the students received their Master's degree in front of a crowd of 3,000 people made up of family and friends, professors and special EPFL guests.
Honoring standout students
The top students in the graduating class were recognized for their hard work: Xavier Fontaine finished his degree with a remarkable grade point average of 5.95, followed by Simon Pyroth, Etienne Ferrier and Robin Demesmaeker, who were tied at 5.91. Pedro Reyes received the merit prize, Hugo Sbai the youth prize, and freerider Yann Rausis the sports prize.
EPFL’s faculty was not overlooked, as the professors who received top marks from their students were awarded Polysphère prizes. Nicolas Turin received the Polysphère d’Or, while Denis Duboule, Holger Frauenrath, Fernando Porté Agel and Alain Wegmann also received prizes.
Honoris causa doctorate
The distinction of Doctor Honoris Causa is also awarded at EPFL’s graduation ceremony. This year the honor went to US Ambassador Suzi LeVine, an engineer by training, for her commitment to youth education and to encouraging women to pursue technical studies, as well as for her own extraordinary career. Mathematician Yves Meyer was awarded the same distinction three weeks ago, since he could not be there for the ceremony.
The Alumni Awards went to Professor Claudia de Rham, an engineering graduate of EPFL, in recognition of her remarkable career in which she became a global standard-bearer in the field of cosmology, and to Mattia Binotto, who graduated in Mechanical Engineering and is Chief Technical Officer of Scuderia Ferrari.
All photos will be available next week on EPFL's Mediathèque page.
