Professor Aebischer is President Emeritus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).

During his 16-year term as EPFL President, from 2000 to 2016, he transformed the school and established it as a world-calibre university of science and technology. He is also a member of the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL’s School of Life Sciences. Prof Aebischer obtained degrees in medicine (1980) and neuroscience (1983) from the Universities of Geneva and Fribourg. From 1984 to 1992, he was a professor at Brown University’s Department of Neuroscience and Department of Biomaterials, Artificial Organs and Cellular Technology in the US. He returned to Switzerland in autumn 1992 as a full professor at the University of Lausanne and Director of the Division of Surgical Research and the Gene Therapy Centre at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). Prof Aebischer is a member of the Singapore Health and Biomedical Sciences International Advisory Council (HBMS IAC), of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and of the International Advisory Board of Sabanci University in Istanbul. He also chairs the Advisory Committee of École Polytechnique in Paris. He serves on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations including the Swiss Polar Foundation, the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Verbier Festival. Prof Aebischer is a member of the Boards of Directors of Nestlé and Logitech. He is a former Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lonza. He is Chairman of the Novartis Venture Fund (NVF) and a Senior Partner at +ND Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in disruptive technology in the life, physical and data sciences. Prof Aebischer is a founder of three biotech start-ups.