By re-electing Ralph Eichler, the Federal Council is sending out a message of continuity and recognition for ETH Zurich’s successful strategy. “With his firm commitment to high-quality teaching, internationally outstanding research and innovation-oriented knowledge transfer, Ralph Eichler is a strong president of ETH Zurich and representative of education and research in Switzerland”, says President of the ETH Zurich Board Fritz Schiesser.
During Ralph Eichler’s tenure so far, ETH Zurich has strengthened its role as an initiator and innovation driver for the Swiss economy and society. The organisation of the university has been adapted to the requirements of a modern management, such as with the new position of Vice-President of Finance and Controlling and a delegate for international institutional affairs. “I look forward to tackling the new challenges with this dedicated Executive Board team”, stresses Eichler.
Where research is searching for solutions to the major social problems, ETH Zurich has set new strategic priorities under Eichler’s leadership. “Climate change, energy, risk, nutrition and health are challenging tasks for which our university can make substantial contributions with its variety of disciplines”, says the President of ETH Zurich.
With this in mind, the Executive Board has reorganised a number of departments. In the newly created Department of Health Science and Technology (D-HST), which is due to open its doors on 1 January 2012, scientists and engineers will work together in the nutritional, movement and neurosciences, medical technology and with hospitals. The agricultural and environmental sciences are also to be amalgamated. This will enable more research to be conducted into a sustainable food supply and encourage the qualification of corresponding specialists.
Together with researchers from ETH Zurich, Ralph Eichler presented ETH Zurich’s new energy strategy. With the demand for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1 ton of CO2 per capital and year, climate change is to be counteracted with increased efficiency, renewable energies and electrification.
Together with the Executive Board, Ralph Eichler has increasingly pushed the expansion of the proportion of external funding in research and championed new research collaborations. A prime example of this is the recently completed construction of the 90-million-franc nanotech lab on the IBM research lab premises in Rüschlikon (ZH). The partners share the infrastructural and operating costs incurred; IBM covers the building costs.
Another strategic partnership is Disney Research Zurich, where ETH-Zurich scientists work alongside Disney engineers on new visualisation technologies at the only Walt Disney research lab at a European university. And the Future Cities Laboratory conducts sustainable urban planning with an externally funded ETH-Zurich branch in Singapore.
For Ralph Eichler, ETH Zurich’s direction over the coming years is clear: “I’d like to make ETH Zurich increasingly well-known for excellent tuition for motivated students in future. Based on strong basic research, it should raise its profile with socially relevant topics. The architects and engineers of ETH Zurich should be synonymous with planning sustainable cities.”
Ralph Eichler was elected President of ETH Zurich by the Federal Council on 30 May 2007. His first term began on 1 September 2007 and runs until the end of August 2011. Eichler has already been a member of the ETH Board, the strategic management and supervisory body of the ETH Domain, since January 2004. He was the Director of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the largest research centre for natural sciences and engineering in Switzerland, in Villigen (AG) from July 2002 to August 2007.
Ralph Eichler was born in Guildford (England) on 31.12.1947. He studied physics at ETH Zurich, receiving his doctorate in 1976. He then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, USA. In 1979 he became a research associate at the major research centre DESY (Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron) near Hamburg. He returned to ETH Zurich in 1982 as a research associate at the Institute for Medium Energy Physics, where he became a professor in 1986.
In 1993 he was made a full professor at ETH Zurich. He has been involved scientifically in the H1 Collaboration, a large-scale experiment in the field of high-energy physics at DESY in Hamburg involving around 400 scientists, since 1992. Between 1995 and 1997 he was the collaboration’s scientific director. Ralph Eichler is a member of many international scientific committees.
More information: http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/101222_Wiederwahl_Ralph_Eichler_mm/index_EN
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