Thesis Director: Prof. G. Fantner,
\r\nBiotechnology and Bioengineering doctoral program
\r\nThesis Nr. 11128
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\r\nTo take part in the public defense, please contact directly the speaker
Pickering emulsions (PEs) have emerged as attractive platforms for the fabrication of porous and other novel functional materials. In this talk, I will first discuss strategies that can be exploited to drive particles to the interface. Thereafter, rules for the designing Pickering emulsions and their printability will be discussed. In particular, we will focus on hetero-aggregation-driven particle adsorption to fluid interfaces, which is crucial for to ensure stability of Pickering emulsions. By controlling particle interactions through parameters such as pH and particle concentration, the microstructure and rheological properties of PEs can be tailored to achieve excellent printability and shape retention during direct ink writing. Thereafter, printable PEs are used to fabricate three-dimensional architectures that are subsequently dried and sintered to obtain hierarchically porous ceramics. The resulting porous structures are characterized in terms of their microstructure, pore size, and porosity. As a demonstration, the porous ceramics are employed as supports for gold nanoparticles and evaluated in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol. The proposed approach provides a simple, scalable, and versatile framework for designing 3D-printable Pickering emulsions and developing functional porous materials for diverse applications.
\r\nKEYWORDS: 3D Printing, Pickering Emulsions, Porous Materials, Catalyst Support
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The availability, diversity, and function of biological matter are inherently shaped by geography. Climate, ecosystems, agriculture, and food systems determine not only which biomass resources emerge across regions, but also the biological architectures and material opportunities they embody. In this presentation, biological matter is explored as a materials platform spanning plant tissues, fungal networks, marine organisms, and biomass-derived colloidal systems, with emphasis placed on how the organization and composition of such natural precursors can guide their engineering into sustainable material systems.
\r\nThemes of (i) biofabrication, using microbial precursors to generate guided assemblies across scales, (ii) natural fiber and bio-colloidal systems, considering their isolation and assembly into functional materials, and (iii) ecosystem integration, considering opportunities to address climatic and other environmental challenges, will be covered. Regarding the latter, examples including arid soil restoration, marine infrastructure remediation, and hybrid living materials are presented as case studies toward deployable systems. For bio-colloidal systems, their inherent advantages and limitations relative to synthetic colloidal systems will also be discussed.
\r\nUltimately, introducing sustainability into the material sector extends beyond precursor selection alone, as ecosystem integration and supply-chain considerations become increasingly critical – particularly as the regionalization of biomass circularization gains importance. The seminar concludes with a brief perspective on technology transfer and innovation as extensions of scientific research toward broader societal impact.
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\r\nDr. Blaise Tardy joined Khalifa University in January 2022 as an Assistant Professor. After graduating from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 2009, he obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from The University of Melbourne in 2015 and was subsequently a research fellow at Aalto University from 2016 to 2022. His research bridges colloidal and interfacial sciences, bioengineering, and sustainable materials, with an emphasis on biological matter as a platform for engineering multiscale material systems. His work spans biofabrication, biomass-derived colloids, natural fibers, and sustainable materials obtained from biotechnology, agriculture, aquaculture, and food-system side streams, with applications linked to the growing circular bioeconomy. This interdisciplinary combination of expertise has led to highly recognized publications featured in international press releases and published in leading journals in materials and nanoscience. His broader objective is to connect fundamental science, innovation, and technology transfer toward deployable material systems with impact beyond the laboratory.
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The development of new materials from renewable resources represents a win-win for humanity, allowing us to create useful products while also addressing critical ecological and environmental challenges. Proteins are particularly promising building blocks for this purpose. From a material science perspective, they offer immense potential for developing novel structures, composites, and other advanced materials. In this talk, I will present our research on the use of proteins and marine biomass to create a wide range of new materials. I'll discuss our bottom-up technologies and demonstrate how we have applied them to develop materials for various applications, including the controlled green syntheses of various nanoparticles and metallic structures, Light-emitting devices, Photothermal materials, Smart Wound dressings, Antibacterial coatings, and more. I will also highlight the significant role that Jellyfish have played as a renewable resource in many of these applications and the unique collaboration of our group with the Israel Electric Corporation, aiming to collect Jellyfish which is clogging the cooling turbines of the electrical power stations.
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\r\nBio: Prof. Shachar Richter is a faculty member in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and the head of the department. He earned his PhD in Materials Science and Chemical Physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. After graduation, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship and was later appointed an independent staff member (MTS) at Bell Laboratories and Agere Systems in New Jersey, USA.
\r\nIn 2001, he joined the School of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University, and in 2013, he moved to the newly established Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He was a visiting professor at Monash University in Australia in 2017 and a distinguished visiting scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). His diverse research area focuses in developing innovative materials from renewable resources, such as jellyfish-based composites for medical and cosmetic uses, as well as working in molecular and bioelectronics, bio-nanocomposites, and new patterning technologies.
\r\nProfessor Richter has held several public roles, including serving as department head, chair of the \"Advanced Materials\" Cathedra, leading the MSc program in Materials Science and Engineering at Tel Aviv University, acting as President of the Israel Vacuum Society (IVS), and chairing the chemistry committee of the Standards Institute of Israel. He also serves on the editorial boards of various journals. Some of his patents have been licensed and are in the process of being commercialized, and he has co-founded two startups.
This two-week programme will be held from 06 to 17 July 2026 at the Bernoulli Center.
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\r\nThe first week features a series of lecture courses primarily aimed at early-career researchers. The second week is a research conference.
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\r\nA central theme of the meeting is Functorial Quantum Field Theories beyond TQFTs and the Segal-Stolz–Teichner programme.
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\r\nThe event will highlight recent developments in extended functorial field theories; analytic structures in quantum field theory, including higher categorical analogues of von Neumann algebras and Hilbert spaces; categorified geometric structures, such as higher vector bundles and stringor bundles; and, supersymmetry and its role in generalized cohomology theories.
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\r\nThe workshop and conference hope to provide an opportunity to advance the interface between homotopy theory, operator algebras, and quantum field theory.
To promote research and education in cyber-defence, EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and the Cyber-Defence (CYD) Campus have jointly launched the “CYD Fellowships – A Talent Program for Cyber-Defence Research”. There are two calls per year and the 14th call is now open.
\r\nCYD Fellowships are designed to promote new solutions to major challenges in the fields of security and data science by bringing together basic and applied research. They are open to researchers at master, doctoral, or postdoctoral level who are willing to engage with innovative issues in cyber-defence, with a particular emphasis on:\r\n
To promote research and education in cyber-defence, the EPFL and the Cyber-Defence (CYD) Campus have jointly launched the “CYD Fellowships – A Talent Program for Cyber-Defence Research.”
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\r\nThe 14th call for applications is now open with a rolling call for Master Thesis Fellowship and Proof of Concept Fellowship applications, and with a deadline of 19 August 2026 (17:00 CEST) for Doctoral and Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship applications.
\r\nEPFL and the CYD Campus organise an online applicant workshop dedicated to the CYD Fellowships 14th call for applications.
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\r\nThe workshop will target researchers (master, doctoral, postdoctoral level) and entrepreneurs who are willing to engage with cross-cutting issues in cyber-defence, with a particular emphasis on:\r\n