The Federal Council seeks experts at USI to serve the public interest

86e0800a6d18c1a4aa7bd69f3ec19419.jpeg

Institutional Communication Service

7 January 2020

The Federal Council has proceeded with the complete renewal of the extra-parliamentary commissions for the administrative period 2020-2023, which has seen a series of appointments or renewed appointments of USI professors, confirming thus the acknowlegdment of the interdisciplinary skills of our university faculty in the national context.

As part of Switzerland's 'militia' system of citizen legislature, the extra-parliamentary commissions are an instrument of participatory democracy that provide the Federal administration with access to specialist knowledge that would otherwise require increasing its structures or giving out costly mandates. On the other hand, the experts called upon to join these commissions are given the opportunity to serve the public interest and to bring the voice of the institutions or organisations (political, economic and social) they represent into the Federal administration.

The following USI faculty have distinguished themselves for their expertise in the respective fields and have been appointed or confirmed in the relevant extra-parliamentary commissions, as announced by the Federal Council on November 27, 2019.

 

Federal Media Commission FMEC

Bertil Cottier, Full professor of Law at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, has been appointed member of the Federal Media Commission (FMEC). The main media policy issues that Switzerland faces today are largely dependent on a legal-constitutional element, and Cottier was chosen for his expertise in the field of media law, which deals with issues such as media freedom, the status of radio-television or the "governance" of the Internet.

Read more
Profile of Prof. Cottier

 

Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students FCS

Michael Gibbert, Full professor at the Institute of Marketing and Communication Management (IMCA, Faculty of Communication Sciences), has been appointed co-chairman of the Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students (FCS), which grants scholarships of excellence to promote international exchanges and research cooperation between Switzerland and more than 180 countries, as part also of development aid that includes the key concept of "life-changing scholarships".

Read more
Profile of Prof. Gibbert

 

Federal Geological Commission FGC

Rolf Krause, Full professor at the Faculty of Informatics and Director of the Institute of Computational Science (ICS), has been appointed member of the Federal Geological Commission (FGC). The research carried out by the ICS is broad in scope, in the sense that the computational and simulation methods developed can be applied, for example, to both geosciences and medicine. Prof. Krause, in addition to his experience within the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research (SCCER-SoE), brings to this Commission the expertise of the ICS in numerical simulations, artificial intelligence and big data.

Read more
Profile of Prof. Krause

 

Federal Statistics Committee

Antonietta Mira, Full professor at the Faculty of Economics and Director of the Data Science Lab at the ICS, has been appointed member of the Federal Statistics Committee, which is responsible for ensuring that Federal statistics meet the needs of a democratic society by giving its opinion on important statistical issues. Professor Mira's academic projects are well suited for this context, making tangible contributions to research and scientific communication on subjects related to big data and data science.

Read more
Profile of Prof. Mira

 

Other commissions

Federica Sallusto, Group leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, affiliated to USI) and Full professor at the USI Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, was chosen to be part of the Federal Commission of the Marcel Benoist Foundation for the advancement of scientific research.

Simona Martinoli Stebler, lecturer at the Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture (ISA, Academy of Architecture), was appointed to the Federal Commission of the Gottfried Keller Foundation.

Profile of Prof. Sallusto
Profile of Dr. Martinoli Stebler

 

Renewed appointments

Luca Gabutti, Full professor at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, will continue to be a member of the Examination Commission in Human Medicine.

Greta Guarda, Group leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, affiliated to USI) and Associate professor at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, has been reappointed in the Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology.

Profile of Prof. Gabutti (in Italian only)
Profile of Prof. Guarda