Prof. Giambattista Ravano
Brief biography
Giambattista Ravano obtained his combined undergraduate/graduate degree in physics from the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) where he worked there as a teaching and research assistant. He spent several years working as a physics teacher at various baccalaureate schools. As an IT specialist, he played a pivotal role in the development of computer science curricula in baccalaureate schools in the Canton of Ticino. He further specialised in IT in private industry, working as an analyst and project manager for an international IT consulting firm, which was part of an international maritime transport group. He continues to work as a company manager, consultant and manager of various IT projects. He was Director of the Information Systems Department and a board member of a UK-based maritime transport company with offices around the world. He ran a large number of IT projects, ranging from the development of new IT systems to deployment of corporate telecommunications networks.
At the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), he works as a professor of software engineering, database management and IT systems. He is also the Deputy Director for Research and Innovation and a member of SUPSI's Directorship, former Director of SUPSI's Department of Innovative Technologies. He was instrumental in the development of SUPSI's new Master of Advanced Studies in Computer Science as well as SUPSI’s IT research activities. He also helped the University of Lugano establish their new Faculty of Informatics and developed a joint USI-SUPSI Master of Science in Informatics programme (with specialisation in applied informatics). He favours a multidisciplinary approach in SUPSI’s research activities and coordinates the research activities of his own department among four affiliated institutes. He developed two new Bachelor of Science programmes, supervised implementation of Bologna reform requirements for engineering programmes, and introduced the Master of Science programme. Working with other institutions, he has developed international activities and cooperation in relation to degree programmes and research in engineering.
His continuing activities in the private sector combined with close contacts with industry led to his involvement in, and subsequent management of, technology transfer activities on behalf of higher education institutions in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. He is President of the AGIRE Foundation, which is comprised of the Associazione Industrie Ticinesi (AITI), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ticino, the Ticino Cantonal Administration, the University of Lugano, SUPSI and other regional economic development bodies. The AGIRE Foundation is responsible for coordinating regional development and innovation activities. The AGIRE Foundation has also been given a cantonal government mandate to allocate innovation funding to start-up companies and already established companies. He his Vice President of the Swiss Accreditation Council.
Giambattista Ravano has been a member of the Swiss Science and Innovation Council since 2012.
Giambattista Ravano is the father of five children and a grandfather.
Address
University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI)
Department of Innovative Technologies
CH-6928 Manno
Tel +41 58 666 65 52
E-mail:
Prof. Dr. Christiane Pauli-Magnus
Short biography
She studied medicine in Heidelberg and later in Würzburg, where she received her doctorate in 1996 after spending semesters abroad in France and Chile. Following her clinical training, from 2000 to 2001 she went to the University of California, San Francisco, where she conducted research into the pharmacogenetics of drug transport processes in the intestine and at the blood-brain barrier. She subsequently moved to Zurich University Hospital as Senior Physician for Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, and here she obtained her post-doctoral teaching qualification (habilitation) in 2004. In 2006 she was involved in setting up the Clinical Trial Unit at Basel University Hospital, which she still heads today.
Prof. Pauli-Magnus is a specialist in general internal medicine and clinical pharmacology, and is titular professor of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Basel.
She has been a member of the Swiss Science Council since 2020.
Basel University Hospital and Basel University
Prof. Dr. Christiane Pauli-Magnus
Department of Clinical Research
Schanzenstrasse 55
CH-4031 Basel
Email:
Prof. Dr. Willy Benz
Brief profile
Willy Benz studied physics at the University of Neuchatel and in 1984 he received his PhD in natural sciences at the University of Geneva for his doctoral thesis in astrophysics. He then went on to post-doctoral work at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) and at Harvard University where in 1987 he was appointed assistant professor by Harvard University. He later taught at the University of Arizona and at the University of Geneva.
Willy Benz has been a professor at the Physics Institute at the University of Bern since 1997 and became institute director in 2002.
His commitment to teaching and research was recognized in 1988 with the Milton Fund Award and a year later with the Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2007 he was appointed external scientific member of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Willy Benz was or is active in several advisory bodies, amongst others as president of the Science and Technology Committee of the European Southern Observatory ESO (2009-2011), since 2008 as a member of the Eidgenössische Kommission für Weltraumfragen EKWF and since 2010 as president of the Space Science Advisory Committee of the European Space Agency ESA.
Willy Benz has been a member of the Swiss Science and Innovation Council since 2004.
He was born on 6 July 1955 in Neuchatel. He is married and father of three children.
Address
Prof. Dr. Willy BENZ
Physics Institute
University of Bern
Sidlerstrasse 5
CH-3012 Bern
Tel: +41 31 631 44 11
Fax: +41 31 631 44 05
E-Mail:
Homepage: Universität Bern
Prof. Dr. Walter Wahli
Brief profile
Walter Wahli studied biology at the University of Bern, where he completed his doctorate in 1977. He worked as a post-doc researcher at the Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore, and was visiting associate at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda (1978-1980).
In 1980, he became Professor and Director of the Institut de biologie animale of the University of Lausanne and was Research Vice-rector for the University of Lausanne from 1999 to 2003. He founded the Centre Intégratif de Génomique, which he directed from 2002 to 2005.
Walter Wahli has been a member of the Swiss National Science Foundation's research council since 1987 and presided over the Biology and Medicine Division for two years.
His research mainly focuses on the genetic control of energy metabolism.
He became member of the SSIC in 2008.
Walter Wahli was born in 1946 in Moutier (Switzerland). He is married and the father of three children.
Address
Monsieur Prof. Dr. Walter Wahli
Centre Intégratif de Génomique
Université de Lausanne
Le Génopode
CH-1015 Lausanne
Tel: +41 21 692 41 10
Fax: +41 21 692 41 15
E-Mail:
Homepage: Université de Lausanne
Prof. Dr. Walter A. Stoffel
Brief profile
Walter Stoffel studied law at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and Yale Law School of New Ha-ven (USA). He wrote his dissertation on “Equal treatment Clauses of Foreigners and Nationals in Friendship Commerce and Navigation Treaties Concluded by Switzerland”. 1979 he took his bar exam and joined a prominent law firm in Zurich.
In 1986 he completed his post-doctoral work on competition law at the University of Fribourg and the year after he received a professorship in the law faculty of the same university where he teaches in the francophone section. Walter Stoffel has also taught at various other foreign universities including the Université de Paris II, McGill University in Montreal, Deakin University in Melbourne and the University of Turin.
The main focus of his research and publications lays on competition law, company law as well as questions concerning the Swiss and international system of courts.
From 1981 to 1987 Walter Stoffel served as vice-director of the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne and from 1994 to 2000 he was scientific director of the International Association of Legal Science. From 2003 to 2010 he was president of the Swiss Competition Commission.
Walter Stoffel has been a member of the Swiss Science and Innovation Council since 2003.
He was born on 12 December 1949. He is married and the father of three children.
Address
Prof. Dr. Walter Stoffel
Université de Fribourg
Chaire de droit économique et droit international privé
Avenue de Beauregard 13
CH-1700 Fribourg
Tel: +41 26 300 80 62
Fax: +41 26 300 97 22
E-Mail:
Homepage: Université de Fribourg