Four new professors appointed at EPFL's School of Basic Sciences

Emmanuel Abbe: Full Professor of Mathematics (75% SB and 25% IC).

Emmanuel Abbe is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in data science, working at the interface of mathematics, information theory, statistics and theoretical computer science. His area of expertise is stochastic block model analysis, and his advances are important to a number of other subject areas, e.g. human biology, genomics, and the analysis of artificial neural networks. Professor Abbe has also received several prestigious awards, including the Latsis Prize. He will join EPFL on August 1st, 2018.

Maria Colombo: Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Maria Colombo is a very talented young researcher who has already attracted international attention for a number of articles in prestigious academic journals. Her areas of research are the analysis of partial differential equations and variational calculus, which is concerned with functionals (e.g. integrals involving an unknown function and its derivatives). She has attracted particular interest for making significant advances in the regulation of the transport equation, which describes the behavior of particle systems in the presence of external force fields. She will join EPFL on August 1st, 2018.

Sahand Jamal Rahi: Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Biophysics

Sahand Jamal Rahi is an innovative scientist with a multidisciplinary approach who shows great potential. In particular, he studies the behavior of biological molecules such as DNA and proteins. His work uses findings from theoretical physics and statistics. One of his specialist areas is the calculation of the Casimir effect between metallic objects. At EPFL, Sahand Jamal Rahi will work closely with colleagues from the disciplines of physics, cell biology and molecular biology, and will contribute to the international positioning of the Institute in these subjects. He will join EPFL on July 1st, 2018.

Ignacio Pagonabarraga: Adjunct Professor

Ignacio Pagonabarraga is an internationally recognized researcher and specialist in soft condensed matter. As Director of EPFL’s Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire (CECAM), which is based at EPFL, he makes important contributions in the field of computer-aided calculation. Professor Pagonabarraga is also very successful at attracting research funding from the European Union.