Future career
Approximately 40% of EDCE graduates move on to positions in academia or research institutions. They work as postdocs, lecturers or assistant professors, frequently in other European countries or North America.
The other 60% moves on to a diverse array of jobs in governmental agencies, NGOs, or industry.
Several of our graduates work for large organizations such as the WHO, or established civil and environmental engineering firms. Other graduates have found jobs at the federal office of the environment or Meteoswiss, or have joined or even founded start-up companies.
According to the surveys regularly conducted by the EPFL career center, EDCE PhD students experience a high work satisfaction after their graduation from EPFL, and consider their doctoral education as an appropriate preparation for their future jobs.
Testimonials
Ph.D in the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory LCE
This is Ana-Karina, with a collaborator, in Mwanza, Tanzania, cathing snails infected with schistosoma mansoni, the parasite responsible for schistosomiasis.
“After finishing my Ph.D., I obtained an SNF Postdoc Mobility fellowship to do research on schistosomiasis elimination at Imperial College London.
I work in collaboration with the Natural Museum in London, and the National Institute for Medical Research in Tanzania. Findings from my research project will be used to develop site-specific interventions to control schistosomiasis in endemic regions.”
Ph.D in the Computational Solid Mechanics Laboratory, LSMS
After completing my PhD thesis in the Computational Solid Mechanics Laboratory (LSMS) on the numerical modelling of dynamic ruptures, I received a SNSF Early Postdoc Mobility fellowship to join the Njord Centre at the University of Oslo, a research group gathering physicists and geoscientists around the study of geological processes. My research in Norway focuses on the interplay between earthquake ruptures and fluid migration in the Earth crust. Among others, this project aims at investigating the problem of seismicity induced by underground fluid injection, which currently restrains the development of deep geothermal power plants, notably in Switzerland.
As a former PhD representative, I particularly appreciate how students in Oslo are involved in University politics and even elect their own Parliament (“Studentparlamentet” building can be seen on the left of the picture).