ISSUE 45: MARCH-MAY 2007

The newsletter of United Nations University and its international 
network of research and training centres/programmes

FRONT PAGE | ARCHIVE

SPECIAL BULLETIN

Prof. Konrad Osterwalder appointed Rector of UNU

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Professor Konrad Osterwalder of Switzerland as the next Rector of United Nations University (UNU).

Professor Osterwalder (left), who will be the fifth UNU Rector, is expected to assume his position at the university’s Tokyo headquarters on September 1. He will succeed Prof. Hans van Ginkel, a geographer from the Netherlands, who has served as UNU Rector since 1997.

Prof. Osterwalder, a Swiss physicist, is the current Rector and President ad interim of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich. He earned his doctorate in theoretical physics at ETH in 1970 and has held positions at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, Harvard University and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He has been a visiting fellow at a number of universities and research institutes around the world. He was appointed as a full professor at ETH Zurich in 1977.

Prof. Osterwalder's research has focused on the mathematical structure of relativistic quantum field theory, elementary particle physics and statistical mechanics. He has taught the natural sciences and engineering for more than two decades. 

In addition to his duties at ETH Zurich, he has been Editor of Communications in Mathematical Physics, Treasurer and President of the International Association for Mathematical Physics, a member of the visiting committee of the Harvard Department of Physics, President of the IHES National Committee of the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences, and member of the advisory council of the Euler Institute in St. Petersburg. 

He also has served as Vice-President of the Conference of Rectors of Swiss Universities, President of the Conference of European Schools of Advanced Engineering Education and Research and as a member of the International Academic Advisory Panel of the Government of Singapore.

Prof. Osterwalder is currently President of UNITECH International, a collaborative initiative between seven European technical universities and more than 20 internationally active corporate partners. He is a member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences and holds an honorary doctorate from the Helsinki Technical University.

“I greatly value the importance of UNU and intend to promote and enhance the collaboration of this key institution with leading institutions around the world,” said Prof. Osterwalder.

MORE INFORMATION

FRONT PAGE

The next edition of UNU Update will be online soon at http://update.unu.edu/

© 2007  United Nations University