Alain Borel

Alain Borel is a Lecturer and Research Data Management Specialist at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), affiliated with the Scientific Information Service (SISB-SOAR) and EDCH-ENS teaching unit. His work bridges academic research and information science, with a focus on research data management, computational chemistry, and MRI contrast agent development.

• Role: Lecturer in data management for chemical sciences
• Affiliation: EPFL Library's SOAR (Scientific Information Service)
• Expertise: Molecular modeling, EPR spectroscopy, programming (Python, JavaScript, Fortran), and FAIR data principles

His research interests span Scientific Data Management (including dataset organization, naming conventions, and repository systems), Molecular Modeling of transition metal complexes using classical MD and DFT methods, and MRI Contrast Agent Development through analysis of gadolinium complexes' magnetic properties. He has contributed to tools like MarcXimiL for library record deduplication and ChemCalc for chemical infrastructure.

Key article trends show continuous contributions to data management frameworks (2025-2019) alongside inorganic chemistry research (2009-2002) focused on gadolinium-based MRI agents, paramagnetic relaxation, and zero-field splitting phenomena.

Alain Borel's technical and pedagogical work is evident in publications covering:

• Data Management: Decision trees, Zenodo communities, README templates
• Chemical Research: Gadolinium complexes, relaxivity, DFT calculations
• Library Science: UDC automation, bibliographic record comparison

He teaches courses on Research Data Management in Chemistry and Information Literacy for Chemists, emphasizing practical data organization and scientific communication.