Dr. Sebastien Vaucher

Sebastian Vaucher obtained his chemistry degree in 1993 at the University of Neuchatel and joined Tokyo Institute of Technology for one year. After completing his Ph.D. on the design of self-assembled organo-metallic monolayers, at the University of Neuchatel in 1998, he developed “soft-chemistry” methods for elaboration of nanostructured molecular magnets at the University of Bristol (UK) as a post-doctoral fellow.

His interests are centred on the control of interfacial growth phenomena. Since 2001 he joined the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), where he leads a team dedicated to the development of new processing technologies for composites. Besides industrial transfer of microwave processing technology he develops in-situ analytical tools to explore the effect of electro-magnetic fields on powdered complex inorganic materials. Recent achievements include the use of Synchotron radiation for time resolved X-ray diffraction under microwave heating and the introduction of in-situ Raman spectroscopy to follow phase selective heating in composite powders.

In addition to the supervision of diploma work and Ph.D students, he is also docent at the Swiss Polytechnic Institute of Technology (EPFL). Author of about 20 publications, he is currently a member of AMPERE (Association for Microwave Power in Europe for Research and Education) and IMPI (International Microwave Power Institute).

Sebastien.Vaucher@empa.ch