Professor Daniel Favrat obtained his Master and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL). He then worked in several industrial research centers in Canada and in Europe before becoming professor of thermodynamics and director of the Laboratory for Industrial Energy Systems of EPFL in 1988. He is a member of the Swiss academy of engineering sciences, of the Swiss advisory committee for energy research and of the Technology Assessment board of the Swiss Council for Science and Technology. Since January 2001 he is also director of the newly formed Institute of Energy Sciences of EPFL which groups nine different laboratories.