Federal Council elects Tobias Walser to the ETH Board
Berne, 02.09.2026 — On 2 September, the Federal Council elected environmental scientist Tobias Walser to the ETH Board as a delegate of the university assemblies of ETH Zurich and EPFL.
Under the ETH Act, one member of the ETH Board is nominated by each of the two university assemblies. Tobias Walser has been managing director of the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich since 2022 and will take office on 1 September 2026. He succeeds Kristin Becker van Slooten, who served as the delegate of the university assemblies on the ETH Board from 2004 to 2006 and again since 2017.
Tobias Walser studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich, where he completed his PhD in 2012 in the field of risk assessment of nanomaterials. For his interdisciplinary work on the dispersion of nanomaterials, he was honoured with the 2012 Swiss Aerosol Award, among other distinctions. As part of his current role as managing director, he is also involved in strategic initiatives at the intersection of technology, regulation and practice. He has extensive experience in the areas of governance, institutional development and the coordination of various stakeholders in the education and research sectors.