The École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is a public research university located in Lausanne, Switzerland. It specializes in natural sciences and engineering. It is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, with three main missions: education, research and innovation. The QS World University Rankings ranked EPFL as the 14th best university in the world across all fields in 2021, whereas THE World University Rankings ranked EPFL as the world's 19th best school for engineering and technology in 2020.
The University of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities in the world to be in continuous operation. As of fall 2017, about 15,000 students and 3,300 employees study and work at the university. Approximately 1,500 international students attend the university, which has a wide curriculum including exchange programs with world-renowned universities.
Ernesto Bertarelli is an Italian-born Swiss billionaire businessman and philanthropist.
Susan Hockfield is an American neuroscientist who from December 2004 through June 2012 served as the sixteenth president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hockfield succeeded Charles M. Vest and was succeeded by L. Rafael Reif, who had served in her administration as Provost. Hockfield was the first biologist and the first woman to serve as the Institute's president. Hockfield, Professor of Neuroscience in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, is a director of General Electric, Qualcomm, and Pfizer. She is an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and a member of the MIT Corporation. Before returning to MIT following her presidency, Hockfield held the Marie Curie Visiting Professorship at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) at the University of California, Berkeley was created in 1997, through a bequest from eight-time Wimbledon champion Helen Wills Moody, an alumna of UC Berkeley.
Jennifer A. Lewis is an American materials scientist and engineer, best known for her research on colloidal assembly of ceramics and 3D printing of functional, structural, and biological materials.
James J. Collins is an American bioengineer, and the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT.
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) is an international foundation that was established in 1995 under Swiss law to "promote the building and maintenance of peace, security and stability". The GCSP was founded by the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports in cooperation with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs as a Swiss contribution to Partnership for Peace (PfP).
Science and technology in Switzerland play an important role in the Swiss economy as very few natural resources are available in the country. The Swiss National Science Foundation, mandated by the Federal government, is the most important institute promoting scientific research.
The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) is a nonprofit research and technology commercialization institute affiliated with three campuses of the University of California in the San Francisco Bay Area: Berkeley, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. QB3's domain is the quantitative biosciences: areas of biology in which advances are chiefly made by scientists applying techniques from physics, chemistry, engineering, and computer science.
Hansjörg Wyss is a Swiss billionaire businessman and donor to politically liberal and environmental causes in the United States. He is the founder and the former president and chairman of Synthes USA, a medical device manufacturer. His Wyss Foundation has more than $2 billion in assets. As of 2021, Wyss had a net worth of US $5.8 billion, according to Forbes. Having donated hundreds of millions of dollars to environmental causes, he has more recently increased his donations to groups promoting progressive causes.
The lung-on-a-chip is a complex, three-dimensional model of a living, breathing human lung on a microchip. The device is made using human lung and blood vessel cells and it can predict absorption of airborne nanoparticles and mimic the inflammatory response triggered by microbial pathogens. It can be used to test the effects of environmental toxins, absorption of aerosolized therapeutics, and the safety and efficacy of new drugs. It is expected to become an alternative to animal testing.
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering is a cross-disciplinary research institute at Harvard University which focuses on developing bioinspired materials and devices for applications in healthcare and sustainability. The Wyss Institute was launched in January 2009 with a $125 million gift to Harvard—at the time, the largest single philanthropic gift in its history—from Hansjörg Wyss. In 2013, Hansjörg Wyss doubled his gift to $250 million and in 2019 he donated a further $131 million.
Donald E. Ingber is an American cell biologist and bioengineer. He is the founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is also a member of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The Lausanne campus or Dorigny university campus is a large area in Switzerland where the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and several other institutions are located. It is in Dorigny, towards the west of Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva. The site is about 2.2 kilometres wide and 31,000 people study and work there.
The Campus Biotech is a Swiss institution hosting research institutes and biotechnology companies. The Campus Biotech is located in the former Merck Serono building, in Geneva (Switzerland).
The Health Valley covers the Western Switzerland region, where the life sciences sector extends from Geneva to Bern, including the seven cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Valais and Vaud. This cluster presents a critical mass of 1,000 companies, research centers and innovation support structures, representing today more than 25,000 employees. The Health Valley strives to animate the life sciences ecosystem of the region, by establishing thriving bridges between its ambassadors.
John P. Donoghue is an American neuroscientist, founder of the Brown Institute of Brain Science at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and founding director of the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering at Campus Biotech in Geneva, Switzerland. He stepped down after a planned five-year term as director.
The Bernstein Center Freiburg (BCF) is the central facility for experimental and theoretical research in the areas of computational neuroscience and neurotechnology at the University of Freiburg. As a member of the national network for computational neuroscience (NNCN), founded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in 2004, the BCF is one of a total of six Bernstein Centers in Germany. Like the other Bernstein Centers, it was named after the German physiologist Julius Bernstein. The BCF is located in the former Institute of Brain Research ("Neurophys") in Freiburg-Herdern. Initially known as Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Freiburg (BCCN), the institute was renamed Bernstein Center Freiburg in 2010. The coordination site for the national Bernstein Network resides in the building of the Bernstein Center Freiburg.
Rafael Yuste is a Spanish-American neurobiologist and one of the initiators of the BRAIN Initiative announced in 2013. He is currently a professor at Columbia University.
