New leadership model for Materials meet Life department

This co-lead will also further strengthen collaboration within the department and across Empa to advance research at the interface of materials and health sciences and broaden its impact on society. With their profound expertise in their respective research fields and their many years of experience in leading research labs, as well as their professorships in the two departments of Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST) and Materials Sciences (D-MATL) at ETH Zurich, René Rossi and Manfred Heuberger are ideally suited for their new roles. Both are also very strongly networked nationally and internationally with our partners in science, industry and politics.

René Rossi and his team are developing intelligent textiles as the basis for novel, digital health technologies. In addition to his professorship at ETH Zurich, he is a visiting professor at the Université de Haute-Alsace in France. Rossi is strongly committed to knowledge and technology transfer and the translation of scientific findings into marketable innovations.

Manfred Heuberger and his interdisciplinary team are researching the future of sustainable plastics; novel synthetic fibers are being developed in the laboratory with the clear aim of industrial transfer. In particular, Heuberger is involved in basic research in the field of material interfaces and gives lectures at ETH Zurich.

René Rossi and Manfred Heuberger had gained initial experience as department heads ad interim in recent months. This is why the Directorate chose this co-lead model after an international call. The decision strengthens Empa's strategy of multidisciplinary research. In this way, the Directorate is reaffirming its vision of developing innovations in close cooperation with industry through broad-based research and establishing modern leadership models at all management levels at Empa. Heuberger and Rossi have already been working closely together for 18 years and have, for example, established the Subitex innovation network with the Swiss textile industry. They intend to keep the department strongly focused on interdisciplinary collaboration.

The Empa Directorate is convinced that this new management model will position the Materials meet Life department and Empa as a whole well equipped for the challenges ahead and is looking forward to working with them.