“Computer science seemed like something with a future!”

“I stumbled into computer science by accident,” says Kermarrec. “That was in 1985. I was born in Rennes in 1970, and I’m the youngest of my siblings. Back then, computers weren’t a big part of our lives. I was undecided about going into medicine. I loved to read, but everyone in my family had a science background. In those days, choosing a subject wasn’t so much about following your passion. What mattered was getting an education and being able to support yourself. My brother was doing a PhD in computer science, so I decided to follow in his footsteps. I remember thinking: ‘This seems like something with a future!’”

Always eager to take on new challenges, Kermarrec has forged a distinguished career shaped by the opportunities she’s seized, the people she’s met and the experiences she’s gained along the way. Her achievements have earned her numerous awards and honors.

“My trademark is decentralized systems, or systems that work without a central server,” she explains. “That’s what I’m best known for. My other specialty is epidemic algorithms, also known as ‘gossip’ algorithms. The concept is similar to how a rumor spreads or a virus passes from person to person. These algorithms work particularly well in decentralized systems.

A leap into entrepreneurship

After completing a postdoc in Amsterdam, Kermarrec took up a lectureship in Rennes in the late 1990s. “But I joined Microsoft Research in Cambridge shortly afterwards, in 2000,” she says. “I had just landed my lectureship and was heavily pregnant, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. Back then, Microsoft had a reputation in some academic circles as ‘the dark side of the Force.’ Microsoft Research was different, though. It was a world-class lab where researchers had complete freedom. I worked with some brilliant people and my career really took off. A few years later, after my second child was born, I wanted to return home. I applied on a whim and got the job.”

Following a stint at the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria), Kermarrec left academia in 2015 to found Mediego, a startup that develops personalized recommendation systems. The next five years gave her firsthand experience of running a business. “A startup is a lot like a research project in the beginning,” she explains. “You don’t know quite where it’ll lead, and you have to find your market.” She created newsletter personalization tools for Ouest-France, the regional newspaper that became her main client. But managing the business took her increasingly away from research. Eventually, she decided to sell the company and return to science. “I recently saw that Mediego had been ranked among the top newsletter tools,” she says. “I was thrilled! It’s still going – and it’s still based in Brittany!” Despite her fond memories of the venture, she insists she “would never do it again!”

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Kermarrec joined EPFL in January 2020. Her decision to move to Lausanne was a natural one: she knew the university well after having worked extensively with researchers there and serving as a visiting professor on the team led by Willy Zwaenepoel, former Dean of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences. “When it comes to computer science, EPFL is one of the best places in Europe,” she says.

The move also made sense on a personal level: her husband lives in Switzerland, while her son, who started at EPFL in 2016, is now working towards a PhD in computer science – in the very same building as her, just two floors above her office!

A staunch feminist

Kermarrec makes no secret of her commitment to women’s causes, whether in her lab or elsewhere. “I’m a staunch feminist,” she explains. “Let’s call it what it is!” She grew up in a family where girls and boys were treated equally, but as an adult she became increasingly aware of persistent gender inequalities, particularly in science and computing. Every year since 2014, she’s marked International Women’s Day by publishing an article about women in computer science on the Binaire blog. During the pandemic, she decided to bring her ideas together in a book, Numérique, compter avec les femmes. “Of course, as a computer scientist, I had to have an algorithm,” says Kermarrec. “So I thought, why not work my way through the alphabet? That gave me 26 things to write about!” Whether with M for mentoring or Q for quotas, she tackles the many facets of gender inequality with humor and candor.

As EPFL’s head of doctoral and lifelong education, Kermarrec is eager to pass on her enthusiasm for research to the next generation, and to give young people – especially young women – confidence in their abilities. “They need to believe they have just as much potential as their male counterparts,” she explains. One way she’s doing that is through Women in Science and Engineering Research (WISER), a program designed to encourage second- and third-year female bachelor’s students to consider a career in research.

For Kermarrec, building a strong team also means spending time together away from the lab, which is why she enjoys taking her PhD students surfing in Brittany: “Skiing divides people by ability. But when you go surfing, everyone’s on the same page – or rather, the same beach!”