Women of MARVEL

Focusing on women's accomplishments and raising awareness against all forms of bias is one way to pave the way to a more gender-balanced world, also here at NCCR MARVEL. Over the past weeks, we have been speaking with the women of MARVEL about their triumphs as well as the challenges they face in pursuing their careers. These interviews are just one way we're working to make sure everybody's voice is heard. 

The list is not exhaustive and new interviews are added regularly.

Group Leaders


  • Ana Akrap (UniFR) is Professor and head of the Light Fermion Spectroscopy group and since May 2020 a new Agility Plus group leader in the Design and Discovery project 6 - Topological Materials — her project is described here.

  • Sara Bonella (EPFL) is the deputy director of the CECAM (Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire) at EPFL. She joined MARVEL in phase III as group leader in Pillar 3, Digital Infrastructure of Open Simulations and Data.

  • Clémence Corminboeuf (EPFL) is Professor and head of the Laboratory for Computational Molecular Design , MARVEL deputy director and project leader of Pillar 2 on Machine Learning.

  • Emiliana Fabbri (PSI) is a senior researcher in the Electrocatalysis and Interfaces group and since May 2020 a new Agility Plus group leader in the Design and Discovery project 4 - Nanoporous Materials — her project is described here and a video featuring her in the #NCCRWomen campaign can be watched here.

  • Marta Gibert (UZH) is SNSF Professor in the field of experimental condensed matter at the Physics Institute of UZH and since May 2020 a new Agility Plus group leader in the Design and Discovery project 5  - Correlated Oxides — her project is described here. Since September 2021, she is University Professor for Topologische und Komplexe Materialien at TU Wien.

  • Zoë Holmes (EPFL) is Tenure Track Assistant Professor, head of Laboratory of Quantum Information and Computation. She has joined MARVEL in May 2023 and is part of the Quantum Simulation project.

  • Marisa Medarde (PSI) is head of the Physical Properties of  Materials group at PSI and group leader in the Design and Discovery project 5 - Correlated Oxides at MARVEL (MARVEL phase II).

  • Sereina Riniker (ETHZ) is Assistant Professor of Computational Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences  at ETHZ and since May 2020 a new Agility Plus group leader in the Design and Discovery project 1 - Organic Crystals — her project is described here.

  • Nicola Spaldin (ETHZ) is Professor and head of the Materials Theory Laboratory at ETHZ and project leader in MARVEL Design and Discovery project 5 - Correlated Oxides (MARVEL phase II).

  • Claire Villevieille was group leader in MARVEL Incubator Project 1 - Solid-State Ionics  (MARVEL phase II) until February 2019.


Postdocs and scientists


  • Migle Grauzinyte (University of Basel) is a postdoc in the group of Stefan Goedecker,  group leader in Design & Discovery Project 1.
  • Snehal Kumbhar (EPFL) is a systems specialist for MARVEL's Open Science platform, which is lead by Giovanni Pizzi in THEOS.
  • Giuliana Materzanini (EPFL) is a postdoc in the group of Nicola Marzari, director of NCCR MARVEL.

  • Tiziana Musso (University of Zurich) is a postdoc in the group of Jürg Hutter, group leader in Design & Discovery Project 4 - Nanoporous Materials.

  • Elsa Passaro (EPFL) is a postdoc in the group of Berend Smit, project leader of Design & Discovery Project 4 - Nanoporous Materials.

  • Chiara Ricca (University of Bern) is a postdoc in the group of Ulrich Aschauer, group leader in Design & Discovery Project 5 - Correlated Oxides.

  • Olga Syzgantseva (EPFL) is a postdoc in the group of Berend Smit, project leader of Design & Discovery Project 4 - Nanoporous Materials.


PhD students


(please see below for interviews of PhD students who started out as INSPIRE Potentials fellows)  

  • Sophie Beck (ETHZ) is in the group of Claude Ederer, group leader in Design & Discovery Project 5 - Correlated Oxides.

  • Fatmah Ebrahim (EPFL) is in the group of Berend Smit, project leader of Design & Discovery Project 4 - Nanoporous Materials.

  • Sonali Parbhoo (University of Basel) is in the group of Volker Roth, computational group leader in Incubator Project 2 - Machine Learning.

  • Rebecca Scatena (University of Bern) is in the group of Piero Macchi, experimental group leader in Design and Discovery Project 4 - Nanoporous Materials.


INSPIRE Potentials

The INSPIRE Potentials Master's Fellowships were introduced in 2016 to broaden the opportunities for women in science. Up to now, 26 students have been granted six-month fellowships for a Master's project in different MARVEL groups. A list of these fellows and their stories can be found here.


Management Team