News from the Executive Board 2023/7
At its last meeting, the Executive Board of ETH Zurich elected, among others, Stefan Bechtold as its delegate for IP Policy and appointed three new members of the Commission for Good Scientific Practice
Re-appointment of the Associate Vice President for Digital Transformation
The Executive Board has once again cast their vote for Lothar Thiele as Associate Vice President for Digital Transformation. Originally, Thiele was elected to serve from 10 November 2020 until his retirement as Professor of Computer Engineering on 31 July 2022. The Executive Board then extended his term until 31 July 2023, and it has now been extended again until 31 July 2024. Thiele supports ETH with developing a future-oriented digital transformation strategy and is also assisting the President of ETH in the search for his successor.
Stefan Bechtold named Associate Vice President for IP Policy
Every year at ETH Zurich, we record around 200 inventions, file 80 to 100 patents and issue roughly 40 new licences. Because of technological progress and the internationalisation of the research landscape, the intellectual property (IP) underlying all of these advancements has become a highly dynamic area fraught with complexity. This raises new questions for ETH in terms of Swiss and international law and also offers opportunities for strategic decision-making.
The Executive Board plans to dedicate more resources to the strategic development of intellectual property issues. One point of emphasis will be protecting the intellectual property created at ETH Zurich so that researchers can use their knowledge for spin-off companies. The university would also like to focus on training scientists to understand the fundamentals of IP and to strategically deploy it in their research.
With these aims in mind, the Executive Board has created the post of Associate Vice President for IP Policy and named Stefan Bechtold, Professor of Intellectual Property at D-GESS, as the first officeholder. His term began on 1 September 2023.
Bechtold has been part of ETH Zurich since 2008. From 2018 to 2021 he served as Head of Department for D-GESS, and he contributed to the organisational development project rETHink as part of Workstream 2, which was dedicated to improving and developing professorships at the university. His research interests include IP, technology and antitrust law as well as economic analyses of law.
As Associate Vice President of IP Policy, Bechthold will be tackling topics such as guidelines for open source software at ETH, training and awareness-raising measures for researchers regarding IP issues, and strategic matters in the Office of Corporate Relations and Knowledge Transfer. “I feel very honoured and am really looking forward to shaping ETH Zurich’s strategic innovation policy,” says Bechtold.
Three new members in the GSP Commission
The Executive Board has elected Peter Müller, Professor of Computer Science, Laurent Vanbever, Professor of Networked Systems, and Stefan Holzer, Professor of Building Archeology and Construction History, as new members of the Commission for Good Scientific Practice (GSP Commission).
Peter Müller represents the Department of Computer Science, Laurent Vanbever the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. They have been elected for a term of office from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2027. Stefan Holzer represents the Department of Architecture. His term of office runs from 1 August 2023 to 31 July 2027. The School Board expressed its gratitude for the services rendered by Elli Mosayebi (D-ARCH), Gabriela Hug (D-ITET) and Kenneth Paterson (D-INFK), who have resigned.
Since 1 April 2018, the Commission for Good Scientific Practice (GSP Commission) has supported the Executive Board in matters of good scientific practice. Each department is represented by a professor. The Executive Board elects the members of the GSP Commission for a period of four years on the proposal of the departments and at the request of the Vice-President.
Language Center appointments and resignations
The members of the Board of Trustees for the external page Language Center of UZH and ETH Zurich are appointed for terms of two years. As the current term is set to conclude on 30 September 2023, the Executive Board has appointed the following ETH representatives to serve from 1 October 2023 through 30 September 2025:
- Andreas Kilcher, D-GESS (re-appointed)
- Manfred Sigrist, D-PHYS (re-appointed)
- Fadoua Balabdaoui, D-MATH (newly appointed)
Fadoua Balabdaoui will succeed Ana Cannas da Silva (D-MATH), who has decided not to serve another term. Wendy Altherr, one of the Heads of Rector's Staff, continues to serve on the Board of Trustees as a non-voting member.
The Executive Board would like to thank Ana Cannas da Silva for her service and wishes the Board of Trustees all the best for the next term.
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