Talks

Research and Technology at the service of humanity

Thursday June 23, 13:00, Lobby NLG

Andreas Dracopoulos, SNF Co-President
Joël Mesot, Professor and President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich)
Martin Vetterli, Professor and President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)

For the second part of the discussion on international collaborations under the SNF Health Initiative, attention turned to the contribution of research and technology to society and open science.

Joël Mesot discussed the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich’s mission to serve society, with its two main fields of activity being health and development. Referring to the toll of the pandemic on mental health, he said, "The issue of mental health is huge. We had students in Zurich who had absolutely no contact with anyone." On working with SNF, Mesot stressed the importance of developing new technologies to help people with severe disabilities.

Martin Vetterli then spoke about the importance of developing functional and efficient health equipment and underlined the contribution of the detection method and open access in addressing health-related crises.