Guido Palazzo

“The Dark Pattern: The Hidden Dynamics of Corporate Scandals”

Wednesday November 12th, 2025 | 12:15pm | Forum Rolex

Guido Palazzo
Lecturer at EPFL and Professor of Business Ethics at HEC, University of Lausanne

Marc Ph. Stoecklin

“Quantum Readiness at Global Scale: Securing Billions of Systems for the Quantum Era”

Marc Ph. Stoecklin
Head of Security Research, IBM Research Europe

Alumni Award 2024

Ignacio Cirac

“A Simple Introduction to Quantum Computing and its Applications”

Ignacio Cirac
Director at Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics

Rafael Mariano Grossi

“Une diplomatie nucléaire active pour un monde plus sûr”

Rafael Mariano Grossi
IAEA Director General

Doctor Honoris Causa 2025

Hadi Barkat

“From EPFL to the Award-Winning Game As d’Or”

Hadi Barkat
CEO & Founder, Helvetiq
Alumni Award 2024

Silvia Quarteroni

“From promise to impact: AI in Switzerland”

Chief Transformation Officer & Head of Innovation at Swiss Data Science Center
Alumni Award 2024

Maria Van Kerkhove

«Is the World Ready for Another Pandemic?»

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, Director (a.i.) of Epidemic and Pandemic Threat Management, WHO

Samantha Anderson

«From the Bench to a Startup: Growth and Challenges of Scaling Chem Tech»

Samantha Anderson, Co-Founder and CEO of DePoly and Alumni Award 2024

Hiroaki Kitano

“Creating the Engine for Scientific Discovery with AI“

Hiroaki Kitano, Executive Deputy President and Chief Technology Officer of Sony
Group Corporation

Conference held on January 24th, 2025

Daniel Huttenlocher

“The Age of AI: And Our Human Future“

Daniel Huttenlocher, Dean, MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

Conference held on October 4th, 2024

Assia Garbinato

“Leadership & Digital Technology Serving Ecological Transition”

Assia Garbinato, Head of Digital & Innovation at Romande Energie, Alumni Award 2023

Conference held on April 18th, 2024

Metin Arditi

“Physics Research – Business – Literary Writing: The Same Battle?“

Metin Arditi, writer, Alumni Award 2023

Conference held on March 14th, 2024

Nicolas Cudré-Mauroux

“Innovation Portfolio Management”

Nicolas Cudré-Mauroux, Chief Technology Officer at SICPA SA

Conference held on February 22nd, 2024

Jennifer A. Lewis

“Printing soft and living matter in three dimensions“

Jennifer A. Lewis, professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Conference held on December 4th, 2023

Madiha Derouazi

“From Scientist to Entrepreneur: Bridging the Gap to Bring Vaccines to the Clinic”

Madiha Derouazi, CEO of Speransa Therapeutics, Founder and former CEO of Amal Therapeutics, Alumni Award 2023 and EPFL alumna

Conference held on November 27th, 2023

Giuliano da Empoli

Conversation with Giuliano da Empoli

Political advisor, author of the novel “The Wizard of the Kremlin”

Conference held on October 9th, 2023

Ghita Mezzour

“Unlocking Morocco’s Digital Potential: Towards an Innovative and Inclusive Growth”

Ghita Mezzour, Morocco’s Minister Delegate in Charge of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform, Alumni Award 2023 and EPFL alumna

Conference held on October 6th, 2023

Alain Aspect

“From Einstein’s doubts and Bell’s theorem to quantum technologies: the second quantum revolution“

Alain Aspect, Nobel Prize in Physics 2022

Conference held on October 2nd, 2023

Jean-Pierre Danthine

“Capitalism and the planet: an impossible marriage?“

Jean-Pierre Danthine, Honorary Professor at EPFL

Conference held on September 27th, 2023

Demis Hassabis

“Using AI to Accelerate Scientific Discovery”

Demis Hassabis, founder and CEO of DeepMind

Conference held on May 26th, 2023

Christoph Aeschlimann

“Ensuring Swiss Tech Leadership”

Chritsoph Aeschlimann, CEO of Swisscom, Alumni Award 2022

Conference held on May 22nd, 2023

Nathalie Brandenberg and Sylke Hoehnel

“On the Verge of the Next Healthcare Revolution“

Nathalie Brandenberg and Sylke Hoehnel, Co-CEO and founders, SUN bioscience

Conference held on November 3rd, 2022

Raquel Urtasun

“An AI-First Approach to Revolutionize Self-Driving at Scale”

Founder & CEO, Waabi and Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto

Conference held on September 30th, 2022

Merritt Moore

“Why Not Both? Pursuing two passions: physics and professional ballet career”

Merritt Moore, ballerina and quantum physicist

Conference held on September 30, 2022

Lorraine Daston

“The Origins of International Governance in Science”

Lorraine Daston, director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Conference held on May 30, 2022

Kim Stanley Robinson

“Do we need a Ministry for the Future?”

Kim Stanley Robinson, writer of science fiction

Conference held on May 19th, 2022

Claudia Clopath

“Mathematical Models of Learning in the Brain“

Claudia Clopath, professor of Computational Neuroscience at Imperial College London

Conference held on May 9th, 2022

John Doerr and Ryan Panchadsaram

“Speed & Scale: A Plan for Confronting Climate Change Now”

John Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins
Ryan Panchadsaram, advisor to the Chairman

Conference held on April 21st, 2022

Chelsea Manning

“The Future of Privacy and Data in Wartime”

Chelsea Manning, technologist and network security expert

Conference held on March 7th, 2022

Sonia Seneviratne

“State of the climate crisis: Conclusions from the last IPCC reports“

Sonia Seneviratne, climate scientist and Professor at ETH Zurich

Conference held on March 3rd, 2022

Carl Zimmer

“Science and Policy During the Pandemic“

Carl Zimmer, award-winning New York Times columnist and author

Conference held on December 6th, 2021

Katie Mack

“The End of Everything”

Katie Mack, Astrophysicist, North Carolina State University, USA

Conference held on November 23rd, 2021

Frank Wilczek

“Conversation with Frank Wilczek”

Physicist (Nobel Prize of Physics, 2004)

Conference held on November 16th, 2021

Marietje Schaake

“How Democracy Ends, the privatisation of governance in the digital world.“

Marietje Schaake, President of CyberPeace Institute

Conference held on November 10th, 2021

Shoshana Zuboff

“In Conversation on The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”

Shoshana Zuboff, Author, Harvard Business School Professor Emerita

Conference held on September 27th, 2021

Rob Greenfield

“Be the change.“

Rob Greenfield, activist and humanitarian

Conference held on May 19th, 2021

Nicholas Christakis

“Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live“

Nicholas, Christakis, professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University

Conference held on May 17th, 2021

Andrea Wulf

“The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World“

Andrea Wulf, historian and author

Conference held on March 8th, 2021

Steven Strogatz

“Infinite Powers: The story of calculus”

Steven Strogatz, professor of Mathematics, Cornell University

Conference held on December, 8th, 2020

Klaus Hommels

“Digital Competitiveness”

Klaus Kommel, venture capitalist and founder of the Lakestar fund in Zürich

Conference held on October 1st, 2020

Mariana Mazzucato

“Digital Competitiveness”

Mariana Mazzucato, economist at University College London (UCL), Founder/Director of UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, and author

Conference held on October 1st, 2020

George Church and Christian Frei

“Conversation with George Church et Christian Frei”

Harvard synthetic biologist and Swiss movie director

Conference held on the 18th of september 2020

Ada Yonath

“Next generation eco-friendly antibiotics and thoughts about origin of life“

Ada Yonath, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009

Conference held on December 17th, 2019

Ed Winters

“The hidden costs of our food choices”

Ed Winters, co-founder and co-director of Surge

Conference held on December 16th, 2019

Giulia Galli

“Marveling at materials through in-silico lenses”

Giulia Galli, Liew Family professor of Electronic Structure and Simulations in the Pritzker School of  Molecular Engineering and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago

Conference held on November 13th, 2019

Alessio Figalli

“From optimal transport to soap bubbles and clouds: a personal journey“

Alessio Figalli, mathematician and laureate of the 2018 Fields Medal

Conference held on November 11th, 2019

Hiroshi Amano

“Gallium nitride (GaN) as a key material for establishing a sustainable society”

Hiroshi Amano, physicist, engineer and inventor

Conference held on October 14th, 2019

Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths

“Algorithms to Live By”

Authors of Algorithms to Live By, The Computer Science Of Human Decisions

Conference held on October, 7th, 2019

Fiona Watt

“Exploring heterogeneity of human skin cells”

Director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), King’s College London

Conference held on 27 September 2019

Yuval Noah Harari

Conversation with Yuval Noah Hariri

Historian, philosopher and bestselling author 

Conference held on July 10th, 2019

Stephen Quake

“A cell is a bag of RNA“

Stephen Quake, Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University

Conference held on July 3rd, 2019

Richard Baldwin

“The Globotics Upheaval: globalization, robotics, and the future of work“

Richard Baldwin, professor of international economics at the Geneva Graduate Institute

Conference held on May 15th, 2019

Klaus von Klitzing

Conversation with Klaus von Klitzing

Laureate of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics

Conference held on April 15th, 2019

Saul Perlmutter

“Science, Reality, Credibility“

Saul Perlmutter, professor of physics. Laureate of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics

Conference held on April 8th, 2019

Elizabeth H. Blackburn

Conversation with Elizabeth H. Blackburn
Researcher and co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Conference held on March 6th, 2019