Empa Technology Transfer Day

Tanja Zimmermann, Director, Empa. Tanja Zimmermann has been Director of Empa since June 2022. From 2017 until the end of May 2022, she was a member of the Directorate and head of the "Functional Materials" department with around 200 employees. At the same time, she took over the co-leadership of the research focus "Sustainable Construction", which deals, among other things, with the successful implementation of the Swiss energy strategy. Zimmermann received her doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 2007 and is a full professor at ETH Zurich and EPFL. She is the author of over 100 scientific publications, "proceedings" and book chapters, and co-owner of several patents.

Hans Ebinger, CEO, Switzerland Innovation Park East. Switzerland Innovation accelerates the transformation of research results into marketable products and services. Hans Ebinger has been CEO of the newly created Switzerland Innovation Park Ost AG in St. Gallen since 2022. After studying and obtaining a doctorate in physics at the University of Marburg and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Hans Ebinger progressed through the career path from developer to CEO. His path led him from the engineering groups Singulus and Oerlikon to the up-and-coming photonics companies SwissOptic, Espros and Z-Laser. He knows both the world of cutting-edge research and that of internationally successful medium-sized companies.

Milena Čukić Radenković, Scientist and Project Leader, Empa. Milena Čukić Radenković is a biomedical electronics engineer and neuroscientist. She conducts research on nonlinear analysis of electrophysiological signals, dynamics of complex systems and fractal approaches to modelling transport processes in the human body. Building on her expertise in physiology, biophysics and neuroscience, she has worked as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at several European universities and founded international collaborations and her own start-up. At Empa, she leads a project on modelling transdermal drug delivery in cancer therapy.

Lars Sommerhäuser, Head Surface Science & Coating Technologies, Empa. Lars Sommerhäuser has been working at Empa since 2016. He heads a research department there. At the same time, he is the manager of a research funding programme of the ETH Domain in the field of modern production technologies. Since 2018, he has also been building up a network of centres in Switzerland in order to be able to transfer new manufacturing technologies to industry more quickly. Lars Sommerhäuser studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University, where he completed his doctorate at the Machine Tool Laboratory. He then worked for more than 15 years as a department head, CTO, COO and CEO in German and Swiss production companies of the Japanese Oji Paper Group and at a Swiss machine and plant manufacturer.

Christian Leinenbach, Head Advanced Processing & Additive Manufacturing of Metals, Empa. Christian Leinenbach is head of the research group "Advanced Processing & Additive Manufacturing of Metals" and deputy head of the department "Advanced Materials Processing" at Empa. He is also a lecturer in metal technology at EPF Lausanne and a member of various specialist groups and committees in the field of additive manufacturing in Switzerland and abroad. Christian Leinenbach studied materials science at the Universities of Saarbrücken (DE) and Luleå (SE) and completed his doctorate at the University of Kaiserslautern (DE). He has been working at Empa since 2005, where he has been involved in materials technology research issues relating to the topic of "3D printing of metals" for more than 10 years.

Philipp Heer, Deputy Head Urban Energy Systems Lab, Empa. Philipp Heer is Deputy Head of the Urban Energy Systems Research Laboratory and is responsible for the design, integration and operation of the flexible and research-oriented energy systems of the Empa demonstrators NEST, move and ehub. He received a BSc from HSLU T&A (2010) and MSc from ETH Zurich (2013) respectively in Electrical Engineering and Communication Systems and a MAS from ETH Zurich (2018) in Management, Technology, and Economics. His research interests are in the area of data-driven and self-learning control of energy systems and building services for a sustainable energy system.

Benjamin Huber, CTO & Co-founder, viboo. Benjamin Huber is co-founder and CTO of the Empa spin-off viboo. Since completing his studies in mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich, he has been conducting research in various (industrial) projects on the topic of efficient building automation at Empa in Dübendorf. His focus here is on data-driven, predictive building automation. Since 2022, he has been bringing energy-efficient control technology from research into practice via the Predictive Control as a Service (PCaaS) platform with viboo.

Harald Desing, Scientist. Harald Desing studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich and tested his skills in industry and development cooperation. In his doctorate in environmental engineering at Empa and ETH, he explored possibilities for a circular economy within planetary boundaries. Since then, at Empa's Technology and Society department, he has dedicated himself to accelerating the transformation to a fossil-free and circular society in terms of energy and materials.

Monika Bütler, SMG board member, self-employed economist, honorary professor HSG, St. Gallen. Monika Bütler is an self-employed economist and honorary professor at the University of St. Gallen. Her research focuses on social insurance, the labour market, political economy and information economics. In addition to her international research activities, she regularly contributes to a wider audience. She is co-founder and editor of the blog batz.ch, a forum for Swiss economic policy. Monika Bütler is a member of the Board of Directors of Schindler Holding AG and Huber & Suhner AG, a member of the Bank Council of the Swiss National Bank and Vice-President of the Gebert Rüf Foundation.