News EPFL

Nominations of EPFL professors

Published:09.12.16 — The Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology has announced the appointment of four professors at EPFL.

Eleven projects for the future Student Center

Published:09.12.16 — Students in the final year of their Master’s degree in architecture spent an entire semester coming up with possible designs for EPFL's future Student Center. Their projects, which were unveiled on 6 December, will again be put on display on 21 December in the lobby of the SG building.

The mechanical clock of the 21st century on display in Neuchâtel

Published:08.12.16 — A highly innovative mechanical clock invented, designed and set in motion by EPFL will soon be installed in the Neuchâtel city hall. This prototype is equipped with a new type of oscillator, marking a major conceptual shift in the long history of mechanical timekeeping.

Gene "bookmarking" regulates the fate of stem cells

Published:07.12.16 — A protein that stays attached on chromosomes during cell division plays a critical role in determining the type of cell that stem cells can become. The discovery, made by EPFL scientists, has significant implications for stem cell biology and their use in medicine.

Phase two of EPFL's expansion in Valais

Published:06.12.16 — EPFL has signed an agreement in principle with the Canton of Valais, as the school's expansion in that canton moves into its second phase. The city of Sion will host a new cutting-edge research center in the science and technology of alpine and extreme environments. EPFL will finance a total of five or six more chairs than initially planned. The partners will also expand the rehabilitation and health activities as well as green chemistry and energies of the future. The workforce will grow from 150 employees currently to more than 350, many of whom will work in a new building planned near the Sion train station. The "large-scale hydropower" research activities will now be run as a close partnership between EPFL and the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais) at EPFL’s laboratory in Lausanne. 

An innovative window system earns a European patent

Published:05.12.16 — A window-glazing system developed by an EPFL team uses micro-mirrors to improve the lighting and visual comfort inside buildings and could also make window blinds obsolete one day. The European Patent Office has just granted the system patent protection.

EPFL installs world-unique NMR system

Published:02.12.16 — EPFL’s Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC) has installed an NMR system with the highest sensitivity and resolution in the world.