Hubert Girault (born 13 February 1957 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France) is a Swiss chemist and is Emeritus Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (1992-2022). He was the director of the Laboratoire d'Electrochimie Physique et Analytique, with expertise in electrochemistry at soft interfaces, Lab-on-a-Chip techniques, bio-analytical chemistry and mass-spectrometry, artificial water splitting, CO2 reduction, and redox flow batteries.
Professor Girault has authored more than 600 scientific publications, with more the 20,000 citations, and an h-index of 76. He has authored a textbook entitled "Electrochimie: Physique et Analytique", which is published in English as "Analytical and Physical Electrochemistry". Professor Girault is an inventor of more than 17 patents (including developing of ESTASI method of ionisation). In addition to his role as a professor at the EPFL, he is an adjunct professor at the Engineering Research Center of Innovative Scientific Instruments, Ministry of Education of China, Fudan University, Shanghai. He has served as a visiting professor at ENS Cachan (Paris, France), Fudan University (China), Kyoto University (Japan), Peking University (China), and Xiamen University (China). Since 2022, he is visiting professor at Polytechnique University Mohamed VI (UM6P).
He has been married to Jördis since 1984 and is the father of Jan-Torben born 1988 and Freya-Merret born 1990.
He is a member of: Carnot Foundation, Naval group advisory board, GreenGT scientific board
Early life
Hubert Girault was born in France in 1957 and spent his childhood in Sucy-en-Brie before moving to Barbizon near Fontainebleau.
Academic career
Hubert Girault earned his engineering diploma in chemical engineering from the Grenoble Institute of Technology in 1979. Three years after that, in 1982, he completed his PhD thesis, entitled "Interfacial studies using drop image-processing techniques", at the University of Southampton, England. From 1982 to 1985, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Southampton, before becoming a lecturer in physical chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. In 1992, he became a professor of physical chemistry at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he continues to teach today. He is also the founder and director of the Laboratoire d'Electrochimie Physique et Analytique. He has served twice as chairman of the Department of Chemistry, now called Institute of Chemical and Engineering Science (ISIC) for the periods 1995-1997 and 2004–2008. He has also served twice as head of the Chemistry Teaching Commission in charge of chemistry and chemical engineering education at EPFL, now called Section of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering for the period 1997–1999 and 2001–2004.
He was director of the Doctoral Program in Chemistry at the EPFL for the period 1999–2000. During the period 2011–2014, he was Dean of Bachelor & Master Studies at EPFL and has supervised a comprehensive teaching reform, with the definition of new curricula starting September 2013. These changes included the introduction of a new first year curriculum with two-thirds of common courses for all scientific and engineering sections, and of a new bachelor curriculum integrating more closely lecture courses, exercises and practical laboratories. He was involved in a major overhaul of the master programs and the introduction of MOOCs for specific courses. As Dean, he introduced measures to improve the quality control of education, in particular by setting up, for each section, an academic commission responsible for auditing yearly all the programs. He also chairs the different admission committees both at the bachelor and master levels.
During his career, he has supervised 70 PhD students and trained many postdoctoral fellows. 30 former PhDs and post-docs are now professors in Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, UK & USA. Education has been a major part of his activities, and his lecture notes have formed the basis of a textbook entitled: "Electrochimie Physique et Analytique" (now in the third edition); translated in English "Analytical and Physical Electrochemistry".