Prof. Heike Bischoff-Ferrari is an M.D. and clinical researcher with specialty board certifications in General Medicine, Geriatrics and Physical Medicine, and Rehabilitation. After her clinical training from 1994 to 2000 at the University of Basel, she started a fellowship at the Department of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and was appointed to the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 2002 till 2005.

Prof. Bischoff-Ferrari received a Master of Public Health Degree from Harvard School of Public Health in 2002 and a Doctor of Public Health from the Dept. of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health in 2008. Since 2004, Prof. Bischoff-Ferrari has had an ongoing appointment as Visiting Scientist at the Human Research Centre on Nutrition and Aging, Tufts University, in Boston. In 2005 she took a primary faculty appointment at the Department of Rheumatology at the University Hospital in Zurich Switzerland and received a Swiss National Foundations Professorship in 2007. In 2008 she became the director of the Centre on Aging and Mobility at the University of Zurich. Prof. Bischoff-Ferrari’s research focus is on improving musculoskeletal health among the senior population with a focus on falls, fractures, and osteoarthritis. One particular interest of Prof. Bischoff-Ferrari is to define the role of vitamin D in the context of aging and musculoskeletal health.