The European Research Council at
Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015, "Summer Davos"
World Economic Forum
9 - 11 September 2015, Dalian, China
ERC participants
ERC Press contact:
Madeleine Drielsma; mobile: +32 498 98 43 97 ([email protected])
ERC leaders
President of the European Research Council (ERC)
Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
President of the European Research Council (ERC)
Sessions:
ERC Press Issue Briefing
9 Sep, 14.15 - 14.45, DICC Press conference room
Ingenuity is not enough
11 Sep, 09.15-10.15, DICC, Arena
Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon was the
Director of the Institut des Hautes Études
Scientifiques (IHÉS) from 1994 till 2013. This
international research institute located near
Paris, France, was built as the European
counterpart of the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton. He was also the first ERC Panel
Chair in Mathematics, for Starting Grants.
A mathematician by training, he spent his whole
career as a fellow of the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He held a
Professor position at École polytechnique from
1986 to 2012. From 1990 to 1992, he was
President of the Société Mathématique de
France and President of the European
Mathematical Society from 1995 to 1998. He is
a former member of the Board of the
EuroScience organisation (2002-2006) and
served on EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF)
committees since 2004.
Professor Bourguignon received the Prix Paul
Langevin in 1987 and the Prix du Rayonnement
Français in Mathematical Sciences and Physics
from the Académie des Sciences de Paris in
1997. He is a foreign member of the Royal
Spanish Academy of Sciences. In 2005, he was
elected honorary member of the London
Mathematical Society and has been the
secretary of the mathematics section of the
Academia Europaea. In 2008, he was made
Doctor Honoris Causa of Keio University,
Japan, and, in 2011, Doctor Honoris Causa of
Nankai University, China.
In addition to his mother tongue, French,
Professor Bourguignon is fluent in English and
German.
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ERC Vice-President
Prof. Núria Sebastián Gallés
Professor in Psychology, Department of Technology,
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (ES)
Session:
Being Human
11 Sep, 13.30-14.30, DICC, Betazone
Professor Núria Sebastián Gallés received her
PhD in Experimental Psychology at the
University of Barcelona in 1986. After Postdoctoral training at the Max Plank Institute and
the CNRS in Paris, she was appointed
Associate Professor at the Faculty of
Psychology (University of Barcelona) in 1988,
where she was promoted to Full Professor in
2002. In 2009, she moved to the Universitat
Pompeu Fabra. She has been Visiting Scholar
at several research centres, including the IRCS
at University of Pennsylvania, the ICN at the
University College (London) and at the
University of Chicago. She has received
international recognition as shown by a James
S. McDonnell Foundation Award (“Bridging
Mind, Brain and Behavior” Program) in 2001
and by giving the prestigious Nijmegen
Lectures in 2005. In 2009, she was also
awarded the ICREA Academia Prize
established by the Catalan Government.
In 2012 she received the Narcis Monturiol
Medal in recognition of her scientific
contributions. She was member of the advisory
group of the 'Brain and Learning' initiative of the
OECD from 2002 to 2006. Until December 2012
she was president of the European Society of
Cognitive Psychology. She is the coordinator of
a Consolider-Ingenio 2010 research consortium
investigating Bilingualism and Cognitive
Neuroscience (BRAINGLOT), integrating six
interdisciplinary research groups (including
linguists, psychologists, physicists etc).
She is currently Associate Editor of
Developmental Science, Editor of the Language
Learning Cognitive Neuroscience Series and
member of numerous editorial boards including
Bilingualism, Language and Cognition and
Language Learning and Development. At the
Center for Brain and Cognition (UPF), she
leads the Speech Acquisition and Processing
Research Group. Her current work focuses on
the study of learning and language processing
with a special emphasis on bilingual
populations. Research in her laboratory extends
from infants to adults with methodologies that
are based on behavioural as well as
physiological and brain imaging responses.
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ERC Grantee
Prof. Panayiota Poirazi
Director of Research, Institute of Molecular Biology and
Biotechnology (GR)
ERC Starting Grant Holder
Sessions:
ERC Press Conference
9 Sep, 14.15 - 14.45, DICC Press room
Countering Brain Drain
10 Sep, 12.15 - 12.45, DICC Innovator Hub 1
Prof. Panayiota Poirazi is a Director of
Research at the Institute of Molecular Biology
and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research
and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) and head of
the Computational Biology Laboratory.
She received the B.S. in Mathematics from the
University of Cyprus in May 1996, the M.S.
degree in Biomedical Engineering in May 1998
and the Ph.D. degree in Biomedical
Engineering in July 2000, both from the
University of Southern California.
Her work focuses on developing computational
models of biological systems with an emphasis
on the brain. She is particularly interested in
modelling learning and memory functions and
dysfunctions at the single cell, microcircuit and
network levels.
She has more than 70 publications, cited more
than 1600 times, in journals like Neuron, Nature
Neuroscience, PNAS,PLoS Comp Biol. etc. She
has received several awards for academic
excellence, including the EMBO Young
Investigator award in 2005, two Marie Curie
fellowships (2002 and 2008), an ERC Starting
Grant in 2012 and the “Manolis Christofides”
Young Cypriot Investigator award in 2013.
She has been selected as a Young Scientist by
the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2014 and
2015. She is a member of AcademiaNet: a
European portal for outstanding women
scientists, the Young Academy of Europe and
Chair of the FENS-KAVLI Network of
excellence.
The ERC Starting Grant project (www.dEMORY.gr ) uses computational models to understand how
dendrites, the thin processes that allow neuronal communication, contribute to memory formation. Its
ultimate goal is to formulate a unifying theory regarding the contribution of dendrites in memory formation
- and subsequently its dysfunctions - across brain regions and abstraction levels. This is achieved via the
development of computational models that start at the single cell level and expand to the microcircuit and
the network level, while varying in their degree of biophysical detail. By manipulating the biophysical,
anatomical and plasticity properties of dendrites and tracking the effect on memory, the project aims to
infer the key rules by which these structures shape mnemonic processes. These rules will form the basis
for deducing theoretical abstractions of trainable neurons with dendrites.
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ERC Grantees in Ideas Lab session
"New Energy Sources with the European Research Council"
(11 Sep, 11.00 – 12.15 am, DICC, Ideas Lab)
Dr Ellen Backus
Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (DE),
ERC Starting Grant holder
ERC research topic:
How water is split – towards more efficient production of
Hydrogen
Ellen Backus studied chemistry at the University of
Amsterdam and obtained her PhD in 2005 at the
Leiden University where she worked on dynamics of
molecules on surfaces. From 2006 to 2008 she
worked as a postdoc at the University of Zurich
(CH). She investigated molecular dynamics of small
peptides and lipids with 1D and 2D ultrafast laser
spectroscopies. From 2008 to early 2012 she
worked at FOM Institute AMOLF as an independent
postdoc on a VENI fellowship. She studied the
vibrational energy transport through model
membrane systems. Since 2012 she has been
working as a group leader at the Max Planck
Institute for Polymer Research in the Molecular
Spectroscopy department. In 2013 she was
awarded an ERC starting grant for the project
"Fundamentals of photocatalytic splitting of water".
In 2014 she was appointed to the Minerva Program
of the Max Planck Gesellschaft. Her research
focuses on studying the structure and dynamics of
water at interfaces using sum-frequency generation
spectroscopy.
Prof. Santiago Badia
Associate Professor, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya,
Barcelona Tech (UPC) (ES), ERC Starting Grant holder
ERC research topic:
Numerical techniques for understanding the processes in a
fusion reactor
Santiago Badia has been associate professor at the
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and adjoint
researcher at the International Center for Numerical
Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) since 2011. At
CIMNE, he is leading the Large Scale Scientific
Computing department, primarily financed by the
Starting Independent Research Grant COMFUS.
Previously, he has worked at the Applied
Mathematics Departments at the Politecnico di
Milano and Sandia National Labs..
He works on finite element methods, numerical
analysis and large scale computing. He is interested
in stabilized finite elements and discontinuous
Galerkin techniques, mainly focused on fluid
problems, e.g., the (Navier-)Stokes equations. He is
also interested in the finite element numerical
approximation of multiphysics problems and efficient
and robust solvers for the resulting linear systems.
He has worked on fluid-structure interaction
problems and magnetohydrodynamic systems
(coupling fluid and magnetics governing equations).
One of the main applications of this research is the
simulation of some technological components of
fusion reactors, e.g., the breeding blankets
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Prof. Frédérique Battin-Leclerc
Research Director, Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (FR), ERC Advanced Grant holder
ERC research topic:
Cleaner and more efficient combustion technologies
Professor Frédérique Battin-Leclerc is a research
Director at Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (CNRS) and head of the Kinetics of
Combustion Group at the Laboratoire Réactions et
Génie des Procédés LRGP, Nancy (FR). Her main
research interests include chemical kinetics,
combustion, oxidation, formation of pollutants,
modeling, jet-stirred reactor, shock tube, laminar
premixed flames, and atmospheric chemistry among
others. During her research career she has worked
at CNRS at DCPR-Nancy and Laboratoire de
Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement at
Grenoble. Prof. Battin-Leclerc was invited
researcher at AEA Technology, Harwell (UK) in
1993 and in NOAA, Boulder (US) in 1997. She got
habilitation at the Institut National Polytechnique de
Lorraine in 1997 and a Ph.D. at the same institution
in 1991.
Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral
Associate Professor, Institute of Materials, Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), ERC Starting Grant holder
ERC research topic:
Fostering the use of nanotechnology in the energy challenges
of the XXI century
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral is Associate Professor at
the Institute of Materials at Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne. Her activities are centered
on the materials science and engineering of
semiconductor
nanostructures,
specifically
nanowires. Nanowires are filamentary crystals with
a very high ratio of length to diameter, the latter
being in the nanometer range. Semiconductor
nanowires are of significant interest from a
fundamental point of view as they exhibit new
physical and chemical properties owing to their
large surface-to-volume ratio, low dimensionality
and confinement in one dimension. From a
technological perspective, they constitute attractive
building blocks for the assembly of novel nanoelectronic and nano-photonic systems, as well as
biochemical sensors.
Anna Fontcuberta I Morral obtained a PhD in
materials Science from Ecole Polytechnique in
2001.Then she did a post doc at the California
Institute of Technology in the US. Afterwards, she
worked as a permanent research fellow at Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), a
visiting scientist at the California Institute of
Technology and a Marie Curie Excellence grant
Team leader at the Technische Universität
München.
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Further ERC Grantees at AMNC
Prof. Flemming Besenbacher
Professor, Aarhus University (DK)
Chairman of Carlsberg Group/Carlsberg Foundation
ERC Advanced Grant holder
Professor, 2002-2012 founding director at the
Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO),
Aarhus University, Denmark. Chairman of the
Supervisory Board, Carlsberg, and of the Board of
Directors, Carlsberg Foundation. Elected Member,
Royal Danish Academy. Foreign member, Chinese
Academy of Sciences. Honorary Professor at 11
Chinese universities. Knight 1st Class of the Order
of Dannebrog from the Queen of Denmark.
Research interests include nanoscience and
surface science studies of catalytic model systems
and molecular self-assembly, using scanning
tunneling microscopy (STM) as the main
experimental technique.
Part of the AMNC Young Scientists Programme:
Prof. Michael Bronstein
Assistant Professor, University of Lugano (CH)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Session: How to build an intelligent machine (11 Sep, 12.00,
Betazone)
Assistant Professor at the Institute of Computational
Science, Faculty of Informatics, University of
Lugano and Research Scientist at Intel. Research
interests are in theoretical and computational
methods in spectral and metric geometry and their
application in computer vision, pattern recognition
and computer graphics. Work on 3D data
acquisition and processing was the technological
core of the Israeli start-up Invision developing a lowcost 3D sensor. Invision was acquired by Intel in
2012 and became part of the Perceptual Computing
group developing the RealSense technology.
Dr Sohini Kar-Narayan
Lecturer, University of Cambridge (UK)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Session: Unexpected Discoveries with Nature (9 Sep, 13.15,
Ideas Lab)
University Lecturer and Royal Society Dorothy
Hodgkin Fellow working in the Device Materials
Group, Department of Materials Science, University
of Cambridge. A Fellow of Clare Hall College and
Director of Studies at Homerton College. Research
aimed at finding energy solutions for “small-power”
applications such as wireless sensors, portable,
flexible and wearable electronics, biomedical
implants. Former postdoctoral research associate in
the Department of Materials Science and a PhD
student in Physics at the Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore.
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Dr Bjorn Schuller
Senior Lecturer, Imperial College London (UK)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Session: How to build an intelligent machine (11 Sep, 12.00,
Betazone)
Senior Lecturer in Machine Learning in Imperial
College London and Chair of Complex and
Intelligent Systems at the University of Passau.
Research interests in speech processing, automatic
speech recognition, computer audition, machine
learning, audiovisual signal analysis. Previously
worked as Tenured Reader and Head of the
Intelligent Audio Analysis Group at the Institute for
Human-Machine Communication, Technische
Universität München, Visiting Researcher at
Joanneum Research, Graz and NICTA, Sydney.
Prof. Sriram Subramanian
Professor, University of Sussex (UK)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Sessions:
Socially Disruptive technology (9 Sep, 11.00, Workstudio)
Clouds over Sidra (9 Sep, 15.45, Virtual Reality Dome)
Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the
University of Sussex. Previously worked as a
Reader at the University of Bristol, Senior Scientist
at Philips Research Labs, Eindhoven, Assistant
Professor at the Universityof Saskatchewan,
Canada. Co-Founder at Ultrahaptics, which brings
back the sense of (tactile) touch to touchless
.
interfaces, creating the magical experience of
feeling without touching. Research focused on
expanding the possibilities of user experiences
when
interacting
with
computer-mediated
environments through the use of haptics, visual and
smell modalities. Holds a PhD in Industrial Design
from the Eindhoven University of Technology
Dr Adrien Desjardins
Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow, University College London (UK)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Senior Lecturer at the University College London.
Research interests in medical devices and imageguided interventions, photoacoustic imaging,
ultrasound, and optical coherence tomography.
Founder of Sonomedix, a start-up focused on
developing a new generation of medical devices to
guide minimally invasive procedures. Obtained a
PhD in Biophysics and Medical Engineering from
Harvard University and the Harvard-MIT Division of
Health Sciences and Technology, USA.
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Dr Mikael Ehn
Researcher, University of Helsinki (FI)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Lecturer and Co-leader of mass spectrometry
research group at the Division of Atmospheric
Sciences at the Department of Physics at the
University of Helsinki. Previously worked as a
postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki
and the Institute for Energy and Climate Research
at Research Center Jülich, Germany. Obtained a
PhD at the University in Helsinki in 2010.
Dr Mark Howarth
Associate Professor, University of Oxford (UK)
ERC Consolidator Grant holder
Associate Professor in Bionanotechnology and
Independent Group leader at the Department of
Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, UK. In
2003-2007 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the
Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, US. In 2003 obtained a PhD at the
University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Clinical
Medicine, partly completed in University of
Southampton Cancer Sciences Division. First Class
Honours degree in Biochemistry, University of
Oxford (MBiochem).
Prof. Victor Panaretos
Associate Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Associate Professor in Mathematical Statistics at
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
Switzerland. He leads a group of eight researchers
developing mathematical statistics for complex data
structures. Obtained a; PhD in Statistics at
University of Californiq at Berkeley, US. At the age
of 24, became the youngest faculty member ever to
hold a chaired professorship at Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and in 2011 one of
the youngest ever ERC Starting Grant Awardees.
Recipient of Erich Lehmann Award for an
Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Theoretical
Statistics.
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Dr Anna Scaife
Reader, University of Manchester (UK)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Reader at the School of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Manchester, and Head of the
Interferometry Centre of Excellence at Jodrell Bank
Centre for Astrophysics. Leads development of the
imaging pipeline for the Square Kilometre Array
(SKA) - an Extreme Data experiment. Scientific
research interests in large scale magnetic fields,
physics of the intra- and inter-cluster medium and
the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. Technical interests in
innovative imaging algorithms for sensor arrays and
novel computing/algorithmic approaches to Big Data
analysis, including Bayesian methods, and
development of radio instrumentation. Obtained a
PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2007;
Dean's Award at the University of Southampton and
College Fellowship at Selwyn College, Cambridge.
Prof. Christoph Stampfer
Professor, RWTH Aachen University (DE)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Full Professor and Head of institute 2A atthe,
Department of Physics, RWTH Aachen University.
Current research focuses on two-dimensional
materials and graphene nanodevices. Author and
co-author of more than 100 papers for Nature
Physics, Nano Letters, Physical, Review Letters,
and Applied Physics Letters, among others.
Previously research assistant, postdoc and a PhD
student at the Department of Mechanical and
Process Engineering, ETH Zurich.
Prof. Fabio Sciarrino
Associate Professor, Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Associate Professor in Matter Physics at the
Department of Physics, Sapienza University of
Rome. Research activities in the fields of
Experimental quantum optics, quantum computation
and information. Foundations of Quantum
Mechanics. Former University Researcher and
Junior Research Fellow at Sapienza University of
Rome. Obtained a PhD in 2004 with a thesis in
experimental quantum optics. Winner of the Premio
Sapio Junior per la Ricerca Italiana Award, the
Medal "Le Scienze in Fisica" with the "Medal of the
Presidency of the Republic".
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Also attending AMNC:
Dr Marianna Obrist
Lecturer, University of Sussex (UK)
ERC Starting Grant holder
Lecturer in Interaction Design at the, School of
Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex
and a visiting researcher at the Newcastle
University. The focal point of Dr Obrist research is to
create a rich and systematic understanding on
users' experiences with interactive technologies.
She is particularly investigating the design spectrum
for touch, taste, and smell experiences in Human-
Computer Interaction (HCI). She was a Marie Curie
Intra European Fellow at the Newcastle University,
Assistant Professor at the University of Salzburg.
Got a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from the
University of Salzburg in 2007.
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European Research Council (ERC)
Set up in 2007 by the European Union, the ERC stimulates scientific excellence in Europe by
encouraging competition for funding between the very best, creative researchers of any
nationality and age. The ERC is already seen as a success story for Europe.
Since its launch, the ERC has funded more than 5000 researchers. There are also several
Chinese top scientists amongst the grant winners.
The ERC has become a "benchmark" for competitiveness of national research systems. With
a budget of over €13 billion from 2014-2020, the ERC supports leading researchers and their
innovative ideas with up to €3.5 million per grant. It operates by an 'investigator-driven',
'bottom-up' approach, which allows researchers to identify new opportunities in any field of
research.
The ERC, based in Brussels, is composed of an Executive Agency and a Scientific Council.
The latter sets the ERC scientific strategy and consists of 22 top scientists and scholars.
Since January 2014, the ERC President is Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon.
This is the fourth time that the ERC participates in the Annual Meeting of the New
Champions, “Summer Davos”. Since 2013, the ERC also attends the World Economic Forum
meetings in Davos, Switzerland.
Links
ERC website
ERC programme
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