(nst) For some time it has been known that Ernst Hafen will take over the reins at ETH Zurich at the end of the year, as the new president and successor of Olaf Kübler. The Executive Board of ETH now gains yet a second new face. Last week the ETH Board elected Dimos Poulikakos to the position of ETH Vice-president Research. Poulikakos will take up office on the 1st of December as successor of Ulrich W. Suter, who did not stand for re-election after his four-year term. At the same ETH Board meeting, Gerhard Schmitt was re-elected as Vice-president Planning and Logistics and will commence his third four-year term of office, also on 1st December. Rector Konrad Osterwalder completes the Executive Board.

Dimos Poulikakos has been tenured Professor of Thermodynamics at ETH Zurich since 1996. He is the founder and head of the Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies at the Institute for Energy Technology. His current research interests are especially strong in the areas of interfacial transport phenomena focusing on energy conversion and transport at micro and nano-levels, surface driven energy conversion and bioengineering.

Born in Athens in 1955, after obtaining his diploma as mechanical engineer Dimos Poulikakos began his academic career path studying and researching at several US universities. He was a tenured Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago when he was called to ETH Zurich. The new member of the Executive Board wants to maintain his research team, despite the high demands this will place on him, as well as some of his teaching pensum.

Two new faces as of December: the Executive Board of ETH Zurich (from top left): Ernst Hafen (President), Konrad Osterwalder (Rector); (from bottom left): Gerhard Schmitt (Vice-president Planning and Logistics) and Dimos Poulikakos (Vice-president Research). large

"I'm a passionate researcher and lecturer and I need the contact, above all with the young students. I'm also convinced that it is of great benefit to my task on the Executive Board when I can experience at first hand what motivates the students," says Poulikakos.