Organisational structure of Faculties and Institutes

Riccardo Blumer, Swiss citizen, studied Architecture at Politecnico di Milano where he graduates in 1982. From 1982 to 1988, he worked for the architect firm of Mario Botta in Lugano. Since then he carried out his work as an architect working for companies such as Alias, Artemide, Desalto, Poliform, Ycami, B&B, Flou by Interior, for the Teatro alla Scala di Milano, la Triennale di Milano, Palazzo Ducale of Genoa and the Musée du Président Jacques Chirac in Sarran. In 1997 he wins the Design Preis Schweiz and in 1998 the Compasso D’oro (Golden Compass) followed by other minor awards thanks to the design of the chair Laleggera produced by Alias. Through the years he focused on structural issues aiming for minimalism, with experiments between physics and aesthetics, and the production of creative perfomances. Based on this he founded the workgroup “blumerandfriends” with which he developed important research activities with new installations and exhibitions. He taught in many Universities such as Iuav in Venice, the University of San Marino, the Naba, the Institute of European Design and the Politecnico di Milano. He has been Professor at the Academy of Architecture since 2013, which is also his designated workplace. Since September 1st 2025 he has been Director of the Academy of Architecture, after having already held the position from 2017 to 2021.. In 2010 his chairs Laleggera for Alias and Entronauta for Desalto became part of the permanent collection at MoMA, New York.  

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Giovanni Pedrazzini is co-Head of cardiology at Cardiocentro Ticino and Full professor at the USI Faculty of Biomedical Sciences. He completed his medical studies at the University of Lausanne and then specialised in Internal Medicine and Cardiology in Bern and Zurich. He has been active at Cardiocentro Ticino since its opening in 1999, first as Head of the interventional cardiology service, then as Deputy head and finally as co-Head of cardiology. Since 2012, he holds a venia legendi at the University of Zurich. Author of numerous scientific publications, Giovanni Pedrazzini is a member - among others - of the Swiss Society of Cardiology, of which he is President, the European Society of Cardiology, the Swiss Society of General Internal Medicine and the Medical Doctors Association of the Canton Ticino. He is Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences from January 1st, 2021. 

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Prof Matthew Hibberd is Professor of Media Management, Media Economics and Media and Cultural Industries at Università Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano, Switzerland. From 2011 to 2016 he was Head of the Communications, Media and Culture and Professor of Communications, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK. He was a Professor at the Libera Università Internazionale per gli Studi Sociali (LUISS), Rome, from 2008-2015 and also held the same position at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome from 2005-2013. He is a Fellow of the UK College of Teachers (FCollT) and the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Professor Hibberd has been Principal Investigator on a number of internationally-funded teaching and research projects. He directed a Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland-funded project examining crisis communications and natural disasters focussing on South-East Asia (Vietnam and India). Matthew was Principal Investigator (PI) on the UK and India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI)-funded Research Collaboration Award programme investigating climate change communications in India and the UK, run in cooperation with the Centre of Media Studies (CMS), Delhi (2010-2013). He was also the PI on another UKIERI-funded project examining journalist training and education and capacity building in India (2013-2015). Professor Hibberd has previous experience of writing reports including the UK government research review in to video games and violence initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Scottish Parliament Communications Audit. He also took part in academic panel meetings as part of the UK Government-funded Byron Review on Children and New Technology. Professor Hibberd is a Consortium Member of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action-funded ‘Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies’ (2011-2014). Matthew Hibberd is the past recipient of international funds from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), British Academy, Fondazione per la Sussidiarietà, and has worked on Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) and Scottish Government-funded projects. He has detailed knowledge of the research methods and tools planned in this proposal: surveys, interviews, focus groups, direct observation. He published his findings on peer-review journals like Screen (2001), Media, Culture & Society (2001), Convergence (2003), and the International Journal of Media and Cultural Policy (2013), and within edited books (see list of publications). Since September 2024, he is Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society.

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Giovanni Pica is Professor of economics at the Faculty of Economics, Institute of Economics (IdEP). After completing his PhD at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, he held positions at the University of Southampton, the University of Salerno and the University of Milan. He is also affiliated with Centro Studi Luca D'Agliano, CSEF, and fRDB. His research concentrates on the labour market effects of financial market imperfections, globalisation and labour market institutions. He is currently working on the role of internal capital and labour markets within organisations, on the effects of non-tariff measures on the behaviour of firms, and on occupational licensing. His work has been published, among other journals, in the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Economic Journal, the Journal of European Economic Association, the Journal of International Economics. He is Dean of the Faculty of Economics from 1 September 2023.

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Professor Ernst C. Wit is Professor of Statistics and Data Science and serves as the director of the Institute of Computing. He obtained PhDs in Philosophy (1997, Penn State) and Statistics (2000, University of Chicago) in the US. From 2000 until 2005 he was in the Statistics Department at the University of Glasgow, where he became a Reader. In 2005 he became head of the Medical Statistics Unit (12 FTE) at the University of Lancaster as full professor. From 2008 until 2018 Wit was at the University of Groningen. Since 2018 he is working in Switzerland, where he has continued to work on methodological development in high-dimensional inference with a specific focus on network modelling. He is the author of 160 peer-reviewed publications. He has served as the President of the European Bernoulli Society and as member of the Board of Directors of the International Biometrics Society. He was president of the Dutch Biostatistics Society. He is a founding member of the Data Science and Systems Complexity Center (DSSC), which also established a Data Science Master and a Statistics and Big Data Master, at the University of Groningen. Wit has presided over a European COST Action, entitled COSTNET (CA15109, 2015-2020), that has dealt with novel methods for statistical network science and that brought together over 500 researchers from 34 countries throughout Europe. He has been Dean of the Faculty of Informatics since 1 September 2025.

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René Roux, a native of Aosta Valley, pursued philosophical-theological studies and became a presbyter in 1991 in the diocese of Aosta. He later specialised in patristic theology and oriental studies in Rome, Oxford, and Paris. From 2000 to 2003, he taught Patrology and Dogmatics at the Istituto Teologico Sant'Anselmo in Aosta. He has since taught in various locations, including Rome, Africa, India, and Germany. Since 2010, he has been the Chair of Ancient Church History, Patrology, and Oriental Ecclesiastical Sciences at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Erfurt, where he also served as Vice-Dean and Dean of Studies. He is a member of both the Scientific Research Commission and the Teaching Commission of the same University. In 2015, he was appointed Rector of the Faculty of Theology of Lugano and left Germany to assume the position. Two years later, he was elected president of the AAPU (Association of Accredited Private Universities in Switzerland). Since 2018, he has been a member of the Commission théologique et œcuménique (CTO) of the Swiss Bishops' Conference. His research areas include the history of patristic hermeneutics and biblical interpretation and their importance for the history of dogma. He also explores ancient Syriac theology and its connection to the theology and culture of the Greek Church and other ancient traditions. Additionally, he examines theological models of thought from antiquity and their relevance in modern times. His work also explores the reception of the theology of the Church Fathers in today's theology, with a particular focus on the theology of religions.

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