As a not-for-profit organization federating Swiss bioinformatics, SIB brings together employees and affiliated members from Switzerland’s leading schools of higher education and research institutes. Most of our employees work as part of the SIB Hub, while a third of SIB employees is embedded into affiliated groups where we co-develop a Resource. SIB Members are part of research and service groups from our partner institutions, led by Group Leaders. Our unique governance structure described below ensures a high level of efficiency by embedding solutions into research and leveraging Switzerland’s network of bioinformatics competences.
A bird’s eye view of our organization
Foundation Council
Highest authority in the institute, with supervisory powers, the Foundation Council’s responsibilities include changes to SIB’s statutes, nomination of Group Leaders, and approval of the annual budget and financial report.
It includes representatives of SIB’s partner institutions.
Read the Foundation Council's collaborative report on the unique contributions of SIB
President
- Mrs Simone de Montmollin, National Councillor, President of the Science, Education and Culture Committee SECC.
Founding members
- Prof. Ron Appel, former SIB Executive Director;
- Prof. Amos Bairoch, Group Leader, SIB and University of Geneva;
- Dr Philipp Bucher, Associate Group Leader, SIB;
- Prof. Denis Hochstrasser, former Vice Rector, University of Geneva;
- Prof. C. Victor Jongeneel, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, USA;
- Prof. Manuel Peitsch, Honorary Professor, University of Basel.
Ex officio members
- Prof. Hugues Abriel, Vice Rector for Research, University of Bern;
- Mr Thomas Baenninger, Chief Financial Officer, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR);
- Prof. Francesco Bertoni, Deputy Director IOR;
- Prof. Enrica Bordignon, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Geneva;
- Prof. Edouard Bugnion, Vice President for Information Systems, EPFL;
- Prof. Emmanuele Carpanzano, Director, Department of Innovative Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI);
- Prof. Sébastien Castelltort, Vice-Rector, Research and Sustainability, University of Geneva;
- Prof. Andrea Cavallaro, Director, IDIAP;
- Prof. Estelle Doudet, Vice Rector "Research", University of Lausanne;
- Prof. Patrick Gagliardini, Vice Rector for Research at the Universita della Svizzera italiana (USI);
- Prof. Antoine Geissbühler, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva;
- Prof. Doron Merkler, Department of Pathology and Immunology, University of Geneva;
- Dr Vincent Peiris, Dean, School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD), HES-SO;
- Prof. Bernard Ries, Vice-Rector International Relations, Digitalisation and Young Researchers, University of Fribourg;
- Prof. Davide F. Robbiani, Director, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB);
- Prof. Patrick Ruch, Head of Research, School of Business Administration (HEG-Geneva), HES-SO;
- Prof. Nicolas Salamin, Director, Department of Computational Biology (DBC), University of Lausanne;
- Prof. Primo Schaer, Vice President for Research, University of Basel;
- Prof. Falko Schlottig, Director, FHNW School of Life Sciences;
- Prof. Dirk Schübeler, Co-Director, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI);
- Prof. Elisabeth Stark, Vice President Research, University of Zurich;
- Prof. Michel Steinmetz, Head a.i. PSI Center for Life Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute PSI;
- Prof. Margot Thome Miazza, Vice-Dean, Research and Innovation, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Department of Immunobiology, University of Lausanne;
- Prof. Jürg Utzinger, Director, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH);
- Prof. Dr Christian Wolfrum, Vice President for Research, ETH Zurich.
Co-opted member
- Prof. Alfonso Valencia, Life Sciences Department Director, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Spain.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors validates decisions necessary to achieve the aims of the institute, such as the strategy and internal procedures, and allocating federal funds to service and infrastructure activities.
It consists of five persons: two Group Leaders elected jointly by the Council of Group Leaders and the Board of Directors, two external members and the Executive Director. Members of the Board are appointed for a renewable five-year period.
- Dr Jérôme Wojcik (Chairman), Industrial Data Scientist & Entrepreneur;
- Prof. Christophe Dessimoz, SIB Executive Director;
- PD Dr Katja Bärenfaller, Group Leader, SIB and Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF);
- Prof. Richard Neher, Group Leader, SIB and University of Basel;
- Mrs Maria Boulos-Richter, Independant Advisor.
Scientific Advisory Board
The Scientific Advisory Board acts as an independent consultative body, providing recommendations to the Board of Directors and the Executive Management. Its main tasks consist of selecting and monitoring services and infrastructure activities, such as the SIB Resources.
It is made up of at least five members, who are internationally renowned scientists in the various fields of bioinformatics.
- Prof. Alfonso Valencia (Chairman), Life Sciences Department Director, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Spain;
- Prof. Melissa Haendel, Director of Precision Health & Translational Informatics and Professor of Genetics at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, USA;
- Prof. Oliver Kohlbacher, Director of the Institute for Translational Bioinformatics, University Medical Center, Tübingen, Germany;
- Prof. Claudine Médigue, Head of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics Analyses for Genomics and Metabolism (LABGeM), Génoscope & CNRS, Evry, France
- Prof. Alexey I. Nesvizhskii, Department of Pathology and Department of Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA;
- Prof. Christine Orengo, Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London, United Kingdom;
- Prof. Ron Shamir, Computational Genomics Group at the Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Council of Group Leaders
The Council discusses all matters relating to SIB Groups as a whole and proposes new Group Leaders for nomination. The Council also elects its representatives on the Board of Directors.
It consists of the Group Leaders and the Executive Director.
SIB Hub
The SIB Hub includes the groups and teams comprising and headed by SIB Employees. This includes the executive management, our scientific groups collaborating with external partners and other SIB Groups across our three pillars (coordination, centre of excellence and open resources), as well as the specialized support teams who are dedicated to serving SIB's projects and activities.