Jean-Dominique Vassalli

Jean-Dominique VASSALLI, former Rector of the University of Geneva, is a Swiss scientist and physician. After obtaining a Swiss Federal Diploma of Medicine at the University of Geneva in 1972, he earned a PhD degree from The Rockefeller University, New York, in 1977 and a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Geneva in 1984. In 1986, he became professor of developmental biology in the Faculty of Medicine.

His laboratory was involved in studies on extracellular proteolysis in mammalian embryogenesis, inflammation and neuronal function, and on translational control of gene expression in gametogenesis. From 1991 to 1999, he was Vice-Dean of the Faculty of medicine, then Vice-Rector of the University of Geneva until 2003. From 2003 to 2007 he was President of Basic Medical Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine. He was appointed Rector of the University of Geneva in 2007, and ended his second term in 2015. He is a recipient of the Cloëtta Prize (1988), of the International Society for Fibrinolysis and Thrombolysis Prize (1994) and an ad personam member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (2001).

Since 2011, he is president of the Brocher Foundation, which encourages multidisciplinary research in the ethical, legal and social implications of the development of medical research and biotechnologies.