Aline Cretenoud wins the 2021 BMI thesis prize

Every year since 2011, the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL awards a prize for the best PhD thesis. The selection is made by the committee and Director of the EPFL PhD program in Neuroscience (EDNE), and consider appraisals and evaluations from the experts of PhD theses committees, based on the scientific work of PhD graduates.

“Typically, five to eight neuroscience PhD students are proposed each year during their private PhD defense,” says Professor Ralf Schneggenburger, the program’s Director. “It is then the job of the EDNE committee to decide who of these excellent PhD students wrote the very best PhD thesis – not an easy task!”

This year, the BMI Best Thesis Prize has been awarded to Dr Aline Cretenoud, who carried out her doctoral work under the supervision of Professor Michael Herzog. Her thesis is titled “Individual differences in visual (mis)perception: a multivariate statistical approach” and examines the multidimensionality of the structure underlying visual perception, with a special emphasis on visual illusions. Her research measured susceptibility to various visual illusions as well as performance in basic visual abilities. Its has now led Cretenoud to a role as Machine Learning Engineer with Logitech.

“I am extremely honored to have my work selected by the BMI committee for this award,” says Cretenoud. “The PhD thesis was challenging at times but I learned a lot; and, most importantly, I sincerely enjoyed it. I am grateful for having had a great supervisor who always pushed me forward, and supportive labmates.”