Steven Gheyselinck, EPFL, Switzerland

Steven Gheyselinck, Collaborateur Scientifique, L'Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Q: What led you into your chosen profession?

A: My newborn son living near a library with an opening for a subject specialist (civil engineering /architect), when I was hundreds of kilometres away doing research on construction defects in buildings.

Q: What book are you reading right now?

A: L'Indien Brésilien et la Révolution Française. Les Origines Brésiliennes de la Théorie de la Bonté Naturelle. (The Brazilian Indian and the French Revolution. The Brazilian Origins of the Theory of Natural Goodness) by Arinos de Melo Franco Afonso.

Q: Who do you admire the most (past or present) and why?

A: I very much admire polyglots, in particular Thomas Young (physician / physicist and the decipherer of hieroglyphs) because mastering the language of others teaches one to be respectful, tolerant towards (and thus learning from) their culture.

Q: What was the first and last music record you bought?

A: Bye Bye Love recorded by The Everly Brothers and La Folia de la Spagna by Gregorio Paniagua, Atrium Musicae.

Q: If you could have any career other than your chosen profession, what would you choose?

A: Bio-paleo-ethno-linguist.

Q: If you could have dinner with any 3 people, past or present, who would they be?

A: Tabitha Babbitt, Shaker and inventress of the circular saw and certainly capable of making a wonderful lemon pie.

Jean-Paul Marat, French physician (and physicist, translator of Newton) and, above all, l'Ami du Peuple (sitting in a Red & Blue chair by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld).

Gabriel García Márquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, who would make sure, by his baroque storytelling, that we could never leave the table.

I would love to see Goya's submerged dog begging for a piece of meat or lying near the fireplace.

Q: Money no option, where would you like to go on vacation?

A: Probably a Buddhist cloister; with the family: travelling in a mobile-home through China.

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