People

The Swiss CAT+ East team

Managing Director

Paco Laveille holds a PhD in Materials Chemistry from ENSCM, France (2009). After a post-doc at the Institut Français du Pétrole – Energies Nouvelles, he worked as a Research Engineer at the KAUST Catalysis Center in Saudi Arabia, overseeing the high-throughput experimentation platform and participating in the design of various heterogeneous catalysts in the group of Prof. J-M Basset. In 2015, he joined the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the UAE as Senior Scientist and led projects related to hydroprocessing catalyst technology and sustainable fuels production. He was appointed Managing Director of the ETH Zurich Catalysis Hub – Swiss CAT+ on January 2021.

Administrative Assistant

Sandra Jacoma joined the team in October 2023 as the administrative assistant of the Swiss Cat+ East. Before joining the ETH Zürich, she was working several years in facility management for the global leader in commercial real estate services (CBRE) at Google Switzerland. In 2022, she was promoted to project coordinator, being responsible for various smaller and bigger project works across Google buildings in Zürich. Combined with her commercial background, she brings a wide range of experience to the role of administrative assistant. Sandra is taking over from Corinne Strässle, supporting the team in various administrative matters, organization, and corporate appearance.

Scientist - Chemical Data Management and Analysis

Erwin Lam received his Bachelor’s (2014) and Master’s (2015) degree in chemistry at ETH Zürich and carried out his PhD with Prof. Christophe Copéret at ETH Zürich (2015-2020), where he studied the understanding of heterogeneous catalysts by combining synthetic, spectroscopic and computational methods. In 2020, he joined the group of Prof. Erwin Reisner at the University of Cambridge UK, developing electro- and photocatalytic approaches for the valorization of waste chemicals. Since 2022, Erwin Lam joined Swiss CAT+ at ETH Zürich as a Scientist responsible for chemical data analysis and management, and developing automated high-throughput workflows in catalysis.

Senior Scientist - Automation and High-throughput Catalysis

Hou Yuhui received her PhD degree in Physical Chemistry from Xiamen University, China in 2015. After her PhD, she furthered her skills in heterogeneous catalysis at Hokkaido University, Japan. In 2017, she joined the research group of Prof. Peter Broekmann at the University of Bern and extended her research interests to electrocatalysis. In 2021, she joined Chemspeed Technologies AG in Switzerland as Automation Chemist. She was promoted to Workflow Architect and Project Manager before joining SwissCAT+ ETH Zurich in 2023. There, she leverages her knowledge of automation to provide technical expertise and support to help client organizations implement digital throughput. At Swiss CAT+, she is responsible for high-throughput experiments and implementation of high-throughput platforms for catalytic applications.

Scientist - Catalyst Characetrization

Hannes Frey obtained his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Bioengineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2015 and 2019, respectively, focusing on arsenic removal from water and wastewater processing. At ETH Zürich, he continued his studies jointly at the Department of Applied Biosciences and Chemistry (DCHAB) and Scientific Center of Optical and Electron Microscopy (ScopeM). Supervised by Prof. Jeroen Anton van Bokhoven and Prof. Marc Georg Willinger, his research in heterogeneous catalysis spotlighted the complex dynamics of noble metal particles under reactive conditions. Having earned his PhD in 2023, he joined SwissCAT+ as a Scientist where he specializes in catalyst characterization.

Technician - Lab Automation

Timon Gradinger began his journey in Chemistry with a 3-year apprenticeship focused on DNA-encoded chemical libraries under PD Dr. Jörg Scheuermann at ETH Zürich. After completing his apprenticeship, he stayed as a Laboratory Technician for additional nine months. In May 2024, he joined ETHZ SwissCat+, where he operates and maintains high-throughput and robotic equipment, validates analytical methods, and keeps physical and electronic inventories up to date.

Apprentice as a laboratory technician

Samuel Brugger is currently in his second year of his 3 year long apprenticeship as a laboratory technician in chemistry at ETHZ. In his first year he gathered a lot of experience in several analytical methods like TGA and FTIR in regard to material science at the department of materials at ETHZ. He will work at SwissCat+ until the end of his apprenticeship. During that time, Samuel will learn everything about lab automation and how to properly use the equipment and infrastructure of SwissCat+. He will also learn the chemistry behind heterogeneous catalysis.

Lab Chemist Intern

Alex holds a Bachelor's degree in Applied Chemistry from Debre Berhan University and has two years of experience as an analytical chemist in the cosmetics and cleaning industry at Cleanll Industries in Ethiopia. Skilled in quality control and product development, Alex has recently joined the Catalysis Hub to support the development of high-throughput characterization techniques in catalysis research, focusing on sample preparation for X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and ICP-MS analysis.