Keynote speaker

Born on the island of Hawai’i in the United States, Suliana Manley studied at Rice University where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics in 1997, cum laude. She continued her studies at Harvard University, where she earned a PhD in physics under the supervision of Prof. Dave Weitz in 2004. After this, she conducted postdoctoral research on model lipid bilayer and red blood cell membrane dynamics at MIT in the group of Prof. Alice Gast.

She subsequently went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher in the cell biology laboratory of Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz at the National Institutes of Health (USA). During this time, she developed a highly promising optical method (sptPALM) for studying the dynamics of large ensembles of single proteins in membranes and inside cells.

She became a tenure-track assistant professor of physics at the EPFL in 2009, was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2016, and to full professor in 2022. Her group’s current research focus is on the mitochondrial life cycle, leveraging smart microscopy to enhance speed and resolution and enrich data content beyond the limitations of standard fluorescence microscopy.

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