Prof. em. Dr. Konrad Osterwalder

Konrad Osterwalder was Professor for Mathematics and Rector at ETH Zurich. He retired end of August 2007.

Born in 1942 in Frauenfeld, Thurgau, Konrad Osterwalder studied at ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he earned his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1970. After one year at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, he assumed a research position at Harvard University in 1971; there he became assistant professor of mathematical physics in 1973 and was promoted to associate Professor in 1976. From 1974 to 1978 he was a fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.1977 he was appointed as full Professor of mathematical physics at ETH Zurich.

His research focused on the mathematical structure of relativistic quantum field theory, on elementary particle physics and on statistical mechanics. For over twenty years he has been teaching students in natural sciences and in engineering. He has been a visiting fellow/ guest professor at the IHES in Bures-sur-Yvette (F), at Harvard University, at the University of Texas in Austin, at the Max Planck-Institute for Physics und Astrophysics, Munich, at the Università La Sapienza, Rome, at the Università di Napoli, the University of Tokyo and at the Weitzmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel.


Konrad Osterwalder was head of the Mathematics Department and founder of the seminar center "Centro Stefano Franscini" in Ascona. In 1995 he was elected Rector at ETH.

In addition to his duties at ETH Zurich, he has been editor of Communications in Mathematical Physics, treasurer and president of the International Association for Mathematical Physics, member of the visiting committee of the Harvard Department of Physics, president of the IHES National Committee of the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences, and member of the advisory council of the Euler Institute in St. Petersburg.
More recently he has served as vice-president of the Conference of Rectors of Swiss Universities, as president of CESAER, the Conference of European Schools of Advanced Engineering Education and Research and as a member of the International Academic Advisory Panel of the Government of Singapore. He is President of UNITECH international (a collaboration between 8 European Technical Universities and 25 internationally active leading companies), chairman of the Bologna-Project Group (Swiss Rectors Conference), member of the Nucleo di Valutazione (super-visory council) of the Politecnico di Milano, of the Conseil Administative of the Ecole Polytechnique de France (Paris), of the 'Comité de l´Enseignement' of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, of the University Council of the Università della Svizzera Italiana, President of the University Council of the Technical University Darmstadt and head of the Evaluationsverbund Darmstadt-Kaiserslautern-Karlsruhe.


He is member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences and he holds an honorary degree from the Helsinki Technical University.