Full Professor for Sensory-Motor Systems in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology
ETH Zurich

Robert Riener studied Mechanical Engineering at TU München, Germany, and University of Maryland, USA. He received a Dr.-Ing. degree in Engineering from the TU München in 1997. After a one year postdoctoral work at the Centro di Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, in 1998 he returned to TU München, where he completed his habilitation in the field of Biomechatronics in 2003. In 2003 he became assistant professor at ETH Zurich and Spinal Cord Injury Center of the University Hospital Balgrist; since 2010 he has been full professor at ETH Zurich, and since 2016 also at the medical faculty of the University of Zurich. Riener was guest professor at USC Los Angeles and SSSA Pisa, and he still is at SJTU Shanghai. Riener has published more than 500 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles, 36 books and book chapters and filed 26 patents. He has received 26 personal distinctions and awards. His work focuses on the investigation of the sensory-motor interactions between humans and machines, which includes the development of rehabilitation robots, exoskeletons and virtual reality technologies. Riener is the initiator and organizer of the Cybathlon, which was honored with the European Excellence Award, the Yahoo Sports Technology Award and two REIMAGINE Education Awards. In 2018 Riener obtained the honorary doctoral degree from the University of Basel.