Professor Viola Vogel FREng

Professor, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Professor Viola Vogel discovered the first high-resolution structural mechanisms about how nature exploits proteins as force-regulated nanoscale mechano-chemical switches, validated them in cell culture, and now translates them towards medical applications. She started her academic career in bioengineering, founded the Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Washington, Seattle (1997), and received an ERC Advanced Grant (proteins as mechano-chemical switches) after moving to Switzerland.

She serves as a judge for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering and is member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, as well as of the Leopoldina and the BBAW.