Inaugural Lectures - Prof. Charlotte Bunne and Prof. Thomas Vidick
Event details
| Date | 03.04.2025 |
| Hour | 18:00 › 19:30 |
| Speaker | Prof. Charlotte Bunne, Prof. Thomas Vidick |
| Location | |
| Category | Inaugural lectures - Honorary Lecture |
| Event Language | English |
Date: Thursday, 3 April 2025
Program:
Registration: Click here
****************************************************************
Virtual Cells and Digital Twins: AI in Personalized Medicine
Abstract
The future of medicine lies in personalization - delivering treatments precisely matched to each patient's unique biology. This inaugural lecture explores how our research on artificial intelligence aims to transform this vision into reality through computational approaches that span molecular, cellular, and tissue scales. Recent breakthroughs in AI architectures have enabled the processing of complex biological data from diverse experimental technologies, leading to a future where AI systems can integrate vast amounts of biomedical data to guide clinical decisions. By creating detailed computational models of patient biology, medical teams may better understand disease mechanisms and test treatment options. The lecture will address both the challenges and opportunities in developing AI systems that can effectively navigate the complexity of human biology and clinical constraints, ultimately contributing to a new era in personalized medicine guided by comprehensive, multi-scale analysis of patient data.
About the speaker
Charlotte Bunne is an assistant professor at EPFL in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences and the School of Life Sciences, and affiliated to the Personalized Oncology Unit of HUG. Before, she was a PostDoc at Genentech and Stanford with Aviv Regev and Jure Leskovec and completed a PhD in Computer Science at ETH Zurich working with Andreas Krause and Marco Cuturi. During her graduate studies, she was a visiting researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard hosted by Anne Carpenter and Shantanu Singh and worked with Stefanie Jegelka at MIT. Charlotte has been a Fellow of the German National Academic Foundation and is recipient of the ETH Medal.
****************************************************************
Prof. Thomas Vidick
The Computational Lens: Insights from Quantum Computing
Abstract
Fundamental phenomena in quantum mechanics, such as the uncertainty principle and entanglement, underlie the phenomenal promise, for algorithms as for cryptography, of quantum computers. Yet these same phenomena create major challenges for us, classical users of such powerful yet subtle machines. Can a quantum computer be tested, can its output be certified, and how? In the lecture I will expose some of quantum computing's most subtle features and demonstrate how classical tools from computer science, complexity and cryptography can bring them to new light.
About the speaker
Vidick received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. His Ph.D. thesis was awarded the Bernard Friedman memorial prize in applied mathematics. After a postdoc at MIT he joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology, where he became professor in 2018. In 2022 he moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He was awarded the Michael and Sheila Held prize of the U.S. National Academy of Science (2023), and the Blavatnik award for young scientists in Israel (2024), for his work on the theory quantum interactive proof systems. He joined EPFL as a Full Professor in Fall 2024.
Program:
- 18:00-18:05: Introduction by Elisa Orrichio, ISREC Director and Andrew Oates, Dean of the School of Life Sciences
- 18:05-18:35: Inaugural Lecture Prof. Charlotte Bunne
- 18:35-18:45: Q & A
- 18:45-18:50: Introduction by Prof. Rüdiger Urbanke, Dean of the IC School
- 18:50-19:20: Inaugural Lecture Prof. Thomas Vidick
- 19:20-19:30: Q & A
- 19:30-21:00: Apéritif in the FoodLab Alpine restaurant
Registration: Click here
****************************************************************
Virtual Cells and Digital Twins: AI in Personalized Medicine
Abstract
The future of medicine lies in personalization - delivering treatments precisely matched to each patient's unique biology. This inaugural lecture explores how our research on artificial intelligence aims to transform this vision into reality through computational approaches that span molecular, cellular, and tissue scales. Recent breakthroughs in AI architectures have enabled the processing of complex biological data from diverse experimental technologies, leading to a future where AI systems can integrate vast amounts of biomedical data to guide clinical decisions. By creating detailed computational models of patient biology, medical teams may better understand disease mechanisms and test treatment options. The lecture will address both the challenges and opportunities in developing AI systems that can effectively navigate the complexity of human biology and clinical constraints, ultimately contributing to a new era in personalized medicine guided by comprehensive, multi-scale analysis of patient data.
About the speaker
Charlotte Bunne is an assistant professor at EPFL in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences and the School of Life Sciences, and affiliated to the Personalized Oncology Unit of HUG. Before, she was a PostDoc at Genentech and Stanford with Aviv Regev and Jure Leskovec and completed a PhD in Computer Science at ETH Zurich working with Andreas Krause and Marco Cuturi. During her graduate studies, she was a visiting researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard hosted by Anne Carpenter and Shantanu Singh and worked with Stefanie Jegelka at MIT. Charlotte has been a Fellow of the German National Academic Foundation and is recipient of the ETH Medal.
****************************************************************
Prof. Thomas Vidick
The Computational Lens: Insights from Quantum Computing
Abstract
Fundamental phenomena in quantum mechanics, such as the uncertainty principle and entanglement, underlie the phenomenal promise, for algorithms as for cryptography, of quantum computers. Yet these same phenomena create major challenges for us, classical users of such powerful yet subtle machines. Can a quantum computer be tested, can its output be certified, and how? In the lecture I will expose some of quantum computing's most subtle features and demonstrate how classical tools from computer science, complexity and cryptography can bring them to new light.
About the speaker
Vidick received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. His Ph.D. thesis was awarded the Bernard Friedman memorial prize in applied mathematics. After a postdoc at MIT he joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology, where he became professor in 2018. In 2022 he moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He was awarded the Michael and Sheila Held prize of the U.S. National Academy of Science (2023), and the Blavatnik award for young scientists in Israel (2024), for his work on the theory quantum interactive proof systems. He joined EPFL as a Full Professor in Fall 2024.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Registration required