Materials News

EPFL researchers have discovered that it is not just molecular density, but also pattern and structural rigidity, that control super-selective binding interactions between nanomaterials and protein surfaces. The breakthrough could help optimize existing approaches to virus prevention and cancer detection. (Click to read on)… ...

Borrowing from methods used to produce optical fibers, researchers from EPFL and Imperial College have created fiber-based soft robots with advanced motion control that integrate other functionalities, such as electric and optical sensing and targeted delivery of fluids. (Click to read on)… ...

School of Engineering (STI) professors Sophia Haussener, Esther Amstad, and Giulia Tagliabue have received the school’s first Engineering Discovery Grant for their interdisciplinary research project aimed at producing droplet- and bubble-based “mini refineries” for solar-driven electrochemical CO2 reduction. (Click to read on)… ...

Tough stuff – that suits her. Karen Scrivener is a renowned expert on the world’s most widely used building materials: concrete and cement. But cement as a binding agent has fallen into disrepute as a “climate killer”. The professor disagrees. The head of the Laboratory for Building Materials at EPFL’s School of Engineering in Lausanne ...

EPFL researchers, together with colleagues in Paris and the U.S., have applied artificial intelligence (AI) to a long-standing problem in materials science – identifying which structures within massive computer-generated databases are good candidates for actual fabrication. NCCR MARVEL’S Michele Ceriotti, professor at the School of Engineering, and coworkers focused their study on hypothetical zeolites, materials ...

Tiffany Abitbol was recently appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor and the head of the Sustainable Materials Laboratory at EPFL’s School of Engineering. Her research looks to create sustainable alternatives to materials derived from unsustainable resources or processes. (Click to read on)… ...

Marianne Liebi, a new tenure-track assistant professor at EPFL and the Paul Scherrer Institute, is setting up a lab at EPFL to further explore the structure of soft matter materials using X-ray scattering. (Click to read on)… ...

A team led by Nicola Marzari has won the inaugural PRACE award for investigations into a fascinating class of novel materials that could underpin next-generation electronic and optoelectronic applications and quantum computing. (Click to read on)… ...

The director of the Mechanical Metallurgy Laboratory at the School of Engineering is to receive CHF 1.7 million from the SNSF for his research into controlling the flow of liquid metals for 3D printing using magnetic fields. (Click to read on)… ...

Anirudh Raju Natarajan, recently appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor at EPFL’s School of Engineering, is passionate about materials. His interests are in using computational methods to design high-performance engineering alloys. In this interview, Prof. Natarajan shares insights into his unbridled curiosity. (Click to read on)… ...