Daniel Favrat is professor emeritus at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and former director of EPFL Energy Center. Previously he was director of the Industrial Energy Systems Laboratory of EPFL for 25 years, director of EPFL Institute of energy sciences for 6 years and of EPFL mechanical engineering institute for 4 years. He was also member of the Swiss Science Council and of the steering committee of its technology assessment group for 4 years. At EPFL, he initiated the “energyscope.ch” platform with a calculator of scenarios for the Swiss energy transition by 2050.
For 10 years he was a member of CORE, the committee advising the Swiss government on energy research and demonstration. He was the president of the program committee of the 4th World Engineering Convention in Geneva specifically dealing with Energy. In the course of his career he spent sabbatical leaves in major universities (MIT, TU Muenchen, University of Tokyo, Ecole des Mines de Paris). He was also affiliated professor at KTH.
Prior to joining EPFL, he worked for 10 years in industrial energy research centers in Canada and Switzerland.
His research includes thermodynamic and systemic analyses in what is called environomics (a contraction of energy, environment and economics) for a more efficient design of integrated technologies based on both fossil and renewable energies. He also contributes to the design of advanced equipment for a more rational use of energy including heat pumps, fuel cells, solar power plants and district heating and cooling networks. He is presently vice-chairman of the energy committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), a member of the editorial board of Energy: the international Journal. He is also a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences and of the French National Academy of Technologies. He is cofounder of ExerGo.ch, a startup company developing a revolutionary district heating and cooling system and a fellow of Presans.com a leading open innovation consulting firm located in Paris. He is co-author of several books and patents in the field of thermodynamics and energy as well as of numerous research papers. In the last years he presented invited conference keynotes in Beijing, Melbourne, London, Copenhagen, Vesteras (Sweden) on subjects dealing with energy efficiency, sustainability, energy storage and district energy systems.