March 2027

Patrick Maxime Michel (1983) studied Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Lausanne and specialised in Assyriology at the University of Geneva. He was a teaching assistant at the University of Lausanne from 2005 to 2006, before becoming a teaching assistant and then a senior teaching assistant at the University of Geneva. It was at the University of Geneva that he completed his doctoral thesis in 2012, which was published in 2014. He also studied in Rome as a member of the Swiss Institute and as a guest of the Pontifical Biblical Institute. In 2021, he obtained a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS) in Cultural Heritage Law.

He has participated in several archaeological excavations in Syria with the American University of Beirut. From 2013 to 2014, he held a fellowship at Venice International University. He is also a member of the scientific committee of the ALIPH Foundation and a member of the board of the Arttech Foundation.

After teaching in Switzerland (the Universities of Geneva and Bern) and abroad (Sapienza University of Rome, Harvard University and Zayed University in Abu Dhabi), Mr Michel is now a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Ancient History at the University of Lausanne. He leads the Collart-Palmyre project, which enables the 3D visualisation of Paul Collart’s archives documenting the Sanctuary of Baalshamin in Palmyra, which has since been destroyed. He is also Director of the faculty centre NUCLEUS, a centre of expertise that brings together members of the Faculty whose research and teaching activities involve or are affected by the impact of digital technologies.