Patrick Aebischer was trained as an MD (1980) and a Neuroscientist (1983) at the Universities of Geneva and Fribourg in Switzerland. From 1984 to 1992, he worked at Brown University in Providence (Rhode Island, USA) as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Medical Sciences. In the fall of 1992, he returned to Switzerland as a Professor and Director of the Surgical Research Division and Gene Therapy Center at CHUV, the Lausanne University Medical School Hospital. Patrick has been President of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) from March 2000 to December 2016. Patrick Aebischer is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a member of the Swiss Academy of Medicine and the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. Patrick Aebischer is the founder of three biotechnology companies: He is on the board of Lonza, Nestlé and Logitech and is the Chairman of the Novartis Venture Fund.