BIO

Martin Vetterli was appointed President of EPFL by the Federal Council after a selection process conducted by the ETH Board, which unanimously nominated him. Professor Vetterli was born on October 4, 1957, in Solothurn and received his primary and secondary education in the canton of Neuchâtel. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich (ETHZ) in 1981, a Master of Science degree from Stanford University in 1982, and a PhD from EPFL in 1986.

Professor Vetterli taught at Columbia University as an assistant professor and later as an associate professor. He was then appointed full professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, before returning to EPFL as a full professor at the age of 38. He has also taught at ETHZ and Stanford University.

Professor Vetterli has won numerous national and international awards for his research in electrical engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics, including the National Latsis Prize in 1996. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, as well as a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He has published over 170 articles and three reference works.

His work on wavelet theory, which is used in signal processing, is considered extremely important by his peers, and his areas of expertise, including image and video compression and self-organizing communication systems, are crucial for the development of new information technologies.

As the founding director of the National Competence Center in Mobile Information and Communication Systems, Professor Vetterli is a staunch advocate of interdisciplinary research. He knows EPFL inside out. He is an EPFL graduate himself, starting teaching at the school in 1995, serving as Vice President for International Affairs, then for Institutional Affairs from 2004 to 2011, and as Dean of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences from 2011 to 2012.

In addition to serving as Chairman of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation from 2013 to 2016, he has been leading the EPFL Audiovisual Communications Laboratory (LCAV) since 1995. Professor Vetterli has supported over 60 students in Switzerland and the United States in their doctoral work and endeavors to follow their successful careers, whether in academia or business.

He is the author of about 50 patents, some of which have formed the basis of startups originating from his laboratory, such as Dartfish and Illusonic, while others have been sold (e.g., Qualcomm) as successful examples of technology transfer. He actively encourages young scientists to bring the results of their work to market.