Lucas Paoli is an ELISIR group leader at the School of Life Sciences of EPFL. His lab uses environmental genomics to study the diversity and ecology of microbiomes. They combine large-scale, data-driven approaches with field campaigns to shed light on the microbial diversity and molecular resources in ecosystems most impacted by environmental changes, such as the ocean–glacier interface.

Prior to that, Lucas was an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Aude Bernheim at Institut Pasteur in Paris, where he worked on environmental drivers of microbial immunity. He holds a MSc in Ecology and Evolution from École Normale Supérieure, a MPhil in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge, and conducted his PhD at ETH Zürich under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Shinichi Sunagawa. His doctoral work on data collected during Tara expeditions helped decipher the genomic blueprint and biosynthetic potential of the global ocean microbiome and was awarded the ETH medal.