“We need to keep encouraging girls to study science and engineering”
Pauline Ruffiot, Marion Albertini and Fabrizia Dutto, scientific mediators at EPFL’s Science Outreach Department- 2025 EPFL/Alain Herzog - CC-BY-SA 4.0
Marion Albertini, Fabrizia Dutto and Pauline Ruffiot are scientific mediators at EPFL’s Science Outreach Department, where they help put on a wide range of activities for the general public and young people – with a particular focus on girls.
There’s a lot of clutter on the second floor of the building that houses the Science Outreach Department. Crates of laboratory glassware sit alongside flyers for upcoming events and a collection of equipment for performing scientific demonstrations. The overall atmosphere is studious, yet relaxed.
This is also the space where Albertini, Dutto and Ruffiot work to plan out EPFL’s science outreach activities. “Our department promotes science and engineering to the general public and schoolchildren,” says Albertini. “The initiative began in 2001 when Farnaz Moser, now our department head, rolled out a gender equality program designed exclusively for young girls. Then EPFL set up a science outreach team in 2008 that ran various co-ed activities. The team was expanded in 2015 to create the Science Outreach Department, tasked with attracting schoolchildren to science and engineering and promoting these fields more broadly.”
Attractive job variety
Today around 30 people, including 23 scientific mediators, work in the department. The team puts on a broad range of events throughout the year – semester-long workshops at EPFL, visits to local schools, the Scientastic science fair, a robotics contest, a science championship and more.
What drew Dutto to the job of scientific mediator was its variety. Now in her 40s, she left her native Italy to spend a year in Vaud under the Erasmus program. “It’s a fantastic university,” she says. “There’s always a lot going on and we can tap into a pool of expert scientists as well as research labs with cutting-edge equipment. My job as a scientific mediator covers many different tasks. For example, I help put together Scientastic, which explores a different theme each year. This pushes me to be creative and constantly come up with new material. I get to learn something new every day!”
Dutto studied microengineering in Turin before coming to EPFL for her PhD. As a university student, she gave private lessons and worked as a summer camp monitor. “I’ve always enjoyed interacting with young people,” she says. “After I completed my PhD, Pauline – who was already at the Science Outreach Department – told me about her job. The Scientastic festival was about to be held for the first time and that’s how I got involved. That was back in 2015. Being a scientific mediator lets me combine my interest in science with the pleasure I get from being in contact with the public.”
Success reflected in the figures
Ruffiot has been working at the Science Outreach Department since 2010. She earned a PhD in biophysics in Grenoble, and then became involved in science outreach events held by local organizations in France. “I needed to get out of the research lab and meet with people directly, sharing what I’d learned in my work,” she says. “I love holding events for children because they’re excited to learn about anything and everything. I initially started at EPFL by replacing someone who was on maternity leave and then never left. The School has a really stimulating environment for science.”
Her colleague Albertini, who’s been at the Science Outreach Department since 2009, agrees. Originally from France, Albertini came to EPFL to study computer engineering. “While I was a student, I gave workshops for schoolchildren at the Lausanne campus and at Espace des Inventions,” she says. “That experience made me want to continue down this path.”
Employees at the department often use their own kids as sounding boards when developing new events. “They’re our beta testers!” says Albertini. The team believes it’s important to ensure prospective events will resonate with schoolchildren before adding them to the program. This approach has proven successful: in 2024, some 30,000 boys and girls took part in the activities that the department held in 22 cantons, and over 30,000 people attended the events run for the general public.
While the percentage of female students at EPFL is growing, Albertini, Dutto and Ruffiot all stress that the School needs to keep up its efforts to encourage girls to study science and engineering – fields that are often still predominantly male.