Personal information

Biography

Klaus Schönenberger obtained a PhD from the EPFL. After a post-doc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA), he joined the medical devices industry where he spent 11 years. In his last position, he was the global vice-president of research and technology at DJO Inc (California), a company with annual revenue of $1bn. In 2009, he left the industry to create the EssentialMed foundation, with the goal to develop medical devices for low- and middle-income countries. In 2011, he joined EPFL to initiate and lead the EssentialTech programme with the same goals, but expanded to more technology domains. There, he initiated a novel methodology to develop technology against poverty, which was released as a MOOC in 2017. In 2018, EPFL decided to elevate EssentialTech to become one of its research centres, which Dr Schönenberger is currently leading as its director. The mandate of the EssentialTech Centre is to harness science and technology to drive sustainable development, support humanitarian action and foster peace. In this frame, he initiated a longstanding and successful collaboration with the ICRC, MSF and several other humanitarian organizations. One of EssentialTech Centre’s flagship achievements so far is project GlobalDiagnostiX: a digital x-ray imaging solution entirely developed for the context of Low and Middle Income Countries. It has led to the creation of a multiple award-winning start-up company Pristem SA, which went to raise a record 14m CHF in its first and only round. Another spin-off of the EssentialTech Centre is the company HMCare, which is deploying a transparent surgical mask. Dr Schönenberger is a co-founder in both start-ups. He currently serves as the chairman of the board of Pristem SA.