Kathryn Hess is a professor of mathematics and life sciences at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).  She received her PhD from MIT and held positions at the universities of Stockholm, Nice, and Toronto before moving to the EPFL. Her research focuses on algebraic topology and its applications, primarily in the life sciences, but also in materials science. In particular, she has elaborated methods based on topological data analysis for high-throughput screening of nanoporous crystalline materials, classification and synthesis of neuron morphologies, and classification of neuronal network dynamics.