BIO

Rector of the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Luciana Vaccaro heads an institution with 21,000 students and 28 universities active in six areas of teaching and applied research. She is responsible for finance, international relations and general strategy.

From 2009 to 2013, she was hired by EPFL to set up and run the Grants Office, where she worked mainly on research funding at national and European level.

Director of postgraduate courses in management and health at the University of Lausanne.

Began her career at CERN before doing a doctorate at EPFL and being appointed assistant professor at the Institute of Microtechnology at the University of Neuchâtel.

Trained as a physicist in Naples, where she is originally from.