Marilyne Andersen is a prominent physicist and academic specializing in sustainable construction technologies, building physics, and daylighting. She currently serves as a Full Professor of Sustainable Construction Technologies at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). In addition to her teaching duties, she is the former Dean of EPFL's School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and she directs the Laboratory of Integrated Performance in Design (LIPID), an initiative she launched in 2010 to advance research in sustainable architectural design.
Before her appointment at EPFL, Andersen established her academic career in the United States. She worked as an associate professor within the Building Technology Group of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While at MIT, she founded the MIT Daylighting Lab in 2004, directing its research into how natural light can be integrated into architectural spaces.
Andersen's educational background bridges fundamental physics and applied building science. She earned a Master of Science degree in physics before completing her PhD in building physics at EPFL, conducting her doctoral research within the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory (LESO). Her research career also includes a period as a visiting scholar in the Building Technologies Department of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, where she further specialized in daylighting technologies.
