UNIVERSITY OF FRIBOURG - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Graduate Administrative Officer / Welcome Center for Academics / MIS
- International Relations Office International Relations Office
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- International Relations Office International Relations Office
Job Titles:
- Administrative Officer
- International Relations Office International Relations Office
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- International Relations Office International Relations Office
Job Titles:
- Head of Communications
- Head of Communications Services
- Unicom Communication & Media
Marius Widmer has been Head of Communications Services since March 2017 and in this capacity has been a member of the Extended University Executive since September 2020.
After completing his degree in social sciences, he worked for international sporting organisations before returning to the University of Fribourg after being media spokesperson for the Federal Statistical Office.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- International Relations Office International Relations Office
Job Titles:
- Rector
- University Executive University Executive / Rector, Finance, Buildings, Research and Innovation
- Vice - Rector International Relations, Digitalisation and Young Researchers
Bernard Ries gained a PhD in mathematics from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 2007. Between 2008 and 2009, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University (USA) in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. He then worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick (UK), before becoming an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Paris Dauphine (France). He was also Deputy Director of the Laboratory of Analysis and System Modelling for Decision Aiding (LAMSADE) between 2013 and 2015. Having arrived at the University of Fribourg in 2015, he now leads the research group Decision Support & Operations Research with Marino Widmer.
His research comprises the representation of complex (economic) decision-making problems with the aid of mathematical models and structures and then the development of quantitative methods and algorithms to solve them. He works mainly with graph modelling, an extremely useful mathematical tool.
Job Titles:
- Rector
- Vice - Rector Teaching, Continuing Education, Campus Life and Equality
- Vice - Rectorate Teaching, Continuing Education, Campus Life and Equality
After completing bilingual studies in Psychology and Neurobiology at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), Prof. Dr. Chantal Martin Soelch carried out her PhD research at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Villigen, Switzerland) using neuroimaging methods to investigate the brain's reward system and received her PhD from the University of Fribourg in 2000. At the same time, she was working at the Memory Clinic of the Psychiatric University Hospital, Zurich, as a neuropsychologist. She then worked as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Basel for five years before being appointed research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Bethesda, USA, for two years. Returning to Switzerland, she worked as Head Psychologist and Head of the research division of the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital of Zurich. She obtained her Habilitation at the University of Zurich in 2011 and was appointed Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Fribourg in 2012. She has been awarded a large number of grants and third-part funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation as well as from European Funding programs. She received a NARSAD (now Brain and Behavior Foundation) young Investigator Award in 2005. She was elected Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Fribourg in 2015 and Vice-Rector in 2019.
Job Titles:
- Vice - Rectorate Libraries, Sustainability, University and Society
Job Titles:
- University Executive University Executive / Rector, Finance, Buildings, Research and Innovation
- Vice - Rector for Legal Affairs, Human Resources and Alumni
- Vice - Rectorate Legal Affairs, Human Resources and Alumni
Sarah Progin-Theuerkauf has been Professor of EU Law and Migration Law at the University of Fribourg since 2009. She is a co-director of four institutes and centres: the Centre for Migration Law, the Institute of European Law, the Interdisciplinary Institute of Ethics and Human Rightsand the Centre for European Studies.
Furthermore, she is Co-Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Democracy.
Sarah Progin-Theuerkauf studied law at the Universities of Bonn and Fribourg and subsequently wrote her doctoral thesis at the University of Fribourg on human rights.
From 2006 to 2008, she was a legal clerk at the Krefeld District Court, the German Federal Cartel Office, a major German law firm in Düsseldorf and the German Embassy in Bangkok among others. She then joined a law firm in Zurich before returning to the University of Fribourg.
Between 2014 and 2018, Sarah Progin-Theuerkauf led a research project on the emergence of a European law on foreigners for the National Centre of Competence in Research, "NCCR - on the move", and was a member of the NCCR's steering committee. She is one of the programme directors and responsible for different modules within the CAS in Migration Law and the CAS Asylum Procedure, which are offered in both German and French.
From 2019 to 2023 Sarah Progin-Theuerkauf was a member of the Senate of the University of Fribourg, most recently as its Vice President. Between 2018 and 2021 she served as President of the University's Equality Commission, now called the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commission. She was President of the Department of International and Commercial Law from 2021 to 2023.
Sarah Progin-Theuerkauf researches on and teaches a wide range of topics relating to asylum and refugee law, immigration law, human rights, free movement of persons and bilateral relations between Switzerland and the EU. Amongst other positions, she is co-editor of the Swiss Yearbook of European Law (published in French and German). She is also member of the board of various professional associations, including the Swiss Association for European Law (ASDE) and the European Communities Studies Association (ECSA Suisse), as well as a member of the European Law Institute and the European Society for International Law (ESIL).
Job Titles:
- Secretary General
- University Executive University Executive / Rector, Finance, Buildings, Research and Innovation
Ralph Doleschal has been Secretary General of the University of Fribourg since 1 September 2020. Previously he was a practising lawyer in Zug and then a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Zurich, where he presented a dissertation in the field of public law.
Most recently, he was Head of the Legal Service of the University of Fribourg.
Job Titles:
- Office Assistant
- International Relations Office International Relations Office
Job Titles:
- International Relations Office International Relations Office
- Research Associate / Scholarship
Job Titles:
- Accounting Officer / Service Accounting / MIS
Job Titles:
- Director of IT Services
- Information Technology
Stéphane Recrosio has been Director of IT Services since September 2021. He joined the University of Fribourg in 2017 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), where he worked in project management and team leadership and, prior to that, in the private sector in Switzerland and abroad.
He studied computer science and economics at the University of Fribourg.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Officer
- International Relations Office International Relations Office
Job Titles:
- Executive B / Head of Office / MIS
- International Relations Office International Relations Office