Entitled \"From abundance to resilience?\", the Forum des transitions urbaines will be held on September 3, 2027 in the Auditorium of Microcity, a branch of the EPFL in Neuchâtel (Switzerland). Organized jointly by the Ecoparc Association and the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) of the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in partnership with the journal espazium, the biennial event will approach this crucial theme for our built environment from different angles.
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In this talk, I'll take a look at three \"microbial vignettes\". In the first, I'll examine how the presence of co-habiting microbes profoundly affects the biology of a human pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This is important, because in diseased human airways - where P. aeruginosa is an unwelcome, but common inhabitant - the pathogen invariably shares the infection site with a variety of other microbes. It turns out that these microbial neighbours interact with one another and that these interactions are perturbed by the loss of a quorum sensing \"master regulator\" (LasR) in P. aeruginosa. In the second \"short\", I'll talk about how we are now able to manipulate the rate of evolution of the organism, either by \"stepping on the gas pedal\" or by \"slamming on the brakes\". The ability to do this, in an experimentally-controlled manner, is allowing us to access some novel evolutionary trajectories, and to address some truly fundamental biological questions. Finally, I'll take a fresh look at bacterial biofilms and in particular, examine whether the exopolysaccharide \"bioglue\" that holds these structures together might have additional - possibly more important roles. It turns out that it does, and that the exopolysaccharide matrix acts as a \"net\" to selectively sequester secreted proteins, potentially conferring novel functionalities on the biofilm.
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\r\nBrief Speaker Bio.
\r\nAfter reading for a degree in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, Martin completed a PhD on bacterial chemotaxis at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), where he was awarded the Wolf Prize for his contributions to the field. Leavuing Israel with a PhD and a [German] wife, he then moved to Toulouse (supported by a long-term EMBO fellowship) where he learned the dark art of x-ray crystallography and solved the structure of a signaling complex involved in bacterial chemotaxis. He then moved back to the UK to take up a post-doctoral position at the University of Cambridge working on quorum sensing in the fascinating plant pathogen, Pectobacterium atrosepticum. There, he developed skills in molecular genetics and demonstrated (for the first time) that quorum sensing molecules bind directly to their cognate LuxR homologs in a range of bacteria. This advance allowed him to secure a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to start his own group - where he learned the hard way that prospective students don't like any project with the word \"plant\" in, and when offered projects on the plant pathogen versus a mammalian pathogen, always went for the latter. Since around 2000, his team's focus has been on understanding better the link between metabolism and virulence in the opportunistic human pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He is now Professor of Microbial Physiology and Metabolism at the University of Cambridge.
Poster Exhibition of Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Students, featuring their 2025–2026 Master’s Projects, in the MXF Entrance (MXF-194.0) from October 1st to 21st, 2026.
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\r\nCivil and Environmental Engineering doctoral program
\r\nThesis Nr. 11653
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\r\nTo take part in the public defense, please contact directly the speaker
Thesis Director: Prof. P. Scarlino,
\r\nPhysics doctoral program
\r\nThesis Nr. 11553
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\r\nTo take part in the public defense, please contact directly the speaker
What does it take to build an AI scientist in chemistry that can carry out research and improve through experience? In this talk, I will explore scientific autonomy as a process of hill climbing: identifying the capabilities that limit autonomous research, addressing those gaps, and evaluating progress on increasingly demanding chemistry tasks.
\r\nDrawing on the El Agente family of systems, I will discuss how hierarchical teams of agents coordinate quantum chemistry workflows and how molecular structure generation addresses a critical gap between chemical reasoning and computational execution. I will consider how these capabilities could contribute to longer-term research goals, such as automated reaction pathway exploration. These examples illustrate how a single missing capability can interrupt an otherwise sophisticated research workflow.
\r\nI will also discuss the open challenge of enabling agents to learn continually from scientific literature, computational results, and failed attempts, and to acquire capabilities as new problems demand them. By examining current capabilities and remaining bottlenecks, I will outline a path toward AI systems that formulate and test chemical hypotheses with increasing independence.