Thomas La Grange

Thomas La Grange serves as a Research and Teaching Associate at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) across multiple units including the Laboratory for Ultrafast Microscopy and Electron Scattering (LUMES) within the Institute of Physics, the Doctoral Program in Physics (EDPY), and the Physics Section (SPH). He additionally holds a Scientific Staff Member position on the School Council of the School of Basic Sciences.

His academic credentials include a Bachelor's and Master's in Materials Science from Michigan State University, culminating in a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from EPFL.

La Grange's research pioneers ultrafast electron microscopy techniques to capture non-equilibrium material dynamics at nanosecond timescales. His work focuses on dislocation-mediated phase transitions, skyrmionics, and defect dynamics in rapidly deforming materials, with significant contributions to instrumentation like time-resolved q-EELS and cryo-LTEM. Current investigations explore uranium oxide reduction mechanisms, magnetic phase transitions in FeRh, and photonic modulation of electron beams.

Recent publications reveal dominant themes in ultrafast imaging of magnetic materials and radiation-sensitive systems, with strong emphasis on electron spectroscopy applications for uranium oxides and magnetite. His group actively develops novel methodologies for momentum-resolved visualization of quantum phenomena in materials like graphite.

His experimental innovations have earned significant recognition:

• Two R&D100 Awards for DTEM instrumentation
• Nano50 Award
• Microscopy Today Innovation Award

La Grange supervises PhD candidates Andrieux Antoine Nicolas and Cattaneo Paolo while teaching core courses including "Physics of materials" and "Electron Matter Interactions in Transmission Electron Microscopy". His research is supported by institutional collaborations across EPFL's physics infrastructure.

As a key member of Fabrizio Carbone's Laboratory for Ultrafast Microscopy and Electron Scattering (LUMES), he leads instrumentation development for capturing material dynamics at unprecedented temporal resolutions, with ongoing projects focused on PINEM techniques and skyrmion manipulation.