100 Notable alumni of
University of Basel
Updated:
The University of Basel is 382nd in the world, 133rd in Europe, and 5th in Switzerland by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Basel sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 1 individual affiliated with the University of Basel won Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine.
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Carl Jung
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- Studied in 1895-1900
- Occupations
- essayistpsychiatristpsychologistpsychotherapist
- Biography
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Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. He was a prolific author, illustrator and correspondent, and a complex and controversial character, presumably best known through his "autobiography" Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
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Leonhard Euler
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- Studied in 1720
- Occupations
- scientistwriterphysicistmusic theoristgeographer
- Biography
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Leonhard Euler was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician, and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics such as analytic number theory, complex analysis, and infinitesimal calculus. He introduced much of modern mathematical terminology and notation, including the notion of a mathematical function. He is also known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy, and music theory.
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Paracelsus
- Occupations
- astrologerchemistphilosopherotolaryngologistwriter
- Biography
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Paracelsus, born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.
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Mateusz Morawiecki
- Occupations
- historianpoliticianeconomistinternational forum participantmanager
- Biography
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Mateusz Jakub Morawiecki is a Polish economist, historian and politician who served as prime minister of Poland between 2017 and 2023. A member of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, he previously served in the cabinet of prime minister Beata Szydło as deputy prime minister from 2015 to 2017, Minister of Development from 2015 to 2018 and Minister of Finance from 2016 to 2018. Prior to his political appointment, Morawiecki had an extensive business career.
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Maximilian Schell
- Occupations
- autobiographeractordirectorfilm directorstage actor
- Biography
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Maximilian Schell was a Swiss actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film Judgment at Nuremberg, his second acting role in Hollywood. Born in Austria, his parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he was still a child, his family fled to Switzerland in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zürich. After World War II ended, Schell took up acting and directing full-time. He appeared in numerous German films, often anti-war, before moving to Hollywood.
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Huldrych Zwingli
- Occupations
- preachertheologiantranslatorwriterProtestant reformer
- Biography
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Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly center of Renaissance humanism. He continued his studies while he served as a pastor in Glarus and later in Einsiedeln, where he was influenced by the writings of Erasmus.
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Daniel Bernoulli
- Occupations
- university teachereconomistphysicianphysiciststatistician
- Biography
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Daniel Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician and physicist and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family from Basel. He is particularly remembered for his applications of mathematics to mechanics, especially fluid mechanics, and for his pioneering work in probability and statistics. His name is commemorated in the Bernoulli's principle, a particular example of the conservation of energy, which describes the mathematics of the mechanism underlying the operation of two important technologies of the 20th century: the carburetor and the aeroplane wing.
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Daniele Ganser
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- In 1992 studied contemporary history
- Occupations
- peace activisthistorianopinion journalistnon-fiction writerlecturer
- Biography
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Daniele Ganser is a Swiss author and conspiracy theorist. He is best known for his 2005 book NATO's Secret Armies.
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Michael Servetus
- Occupations
- astronomertranslatorwriterphysiciancartographer
- Biography
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Michael Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, as discussed in Christianismi Restitutio (1553). He was a polymath versed in many sciences: mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and pharmacology, as well as jurisprudence, translation, poetry, and the scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages.
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Alexander Parvus
- Occupations
- politicianjournalist
- Biography
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Alexander Lvovich Parvus, born Israel Lazarevich Gelfand and sometimes called Helphand in the literature on the Russian Revolution, was a Marxist theoretician, publicist, and controversial activist in the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
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Auguste Piccard
- Occupations
- physicistballoonistuniversity teacherexplorerPrivatdozent
- Biography
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Auguste Antoine Piccard was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer known for his record-breaking hydrogen balloon flights, with which he studied the Earth's upper atmosphere and became the first person to enter the Stratosphere. Piccard was also known for his invention of the first bathyscaphe, FNRS-2, with which he made a number of unmanned dives in 1948 to explore the ocean's depths.
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Jacques Piccard
- Occupations
- inventorengineerexploreroceanographer
- Biography
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Jacques Piccard was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, known for having developed underwater submarines for studying ocean currents. In the Challenger Deep, he and Lieutenant Don Walsh of the United States Navy were the first people to explore the deepest known part of the world's ocean, and the deepest known location on the surface of Earth's crust, the Mariana Trench, located in the western North Pacific Ocean.
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Jacob Bernoulli
- Occupations
- physicistmathematicianphysicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jacob Bernoulli was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Swiss Bernoulli family. He sided with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz during the Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy and was an early proponent of Leibnizian calculus, which he made numerous contributions to; along with his brother Johann, he was one of the founders of the calculus of variations. He also discovered the fundamental mathematical constant e. However, his most important contribution was in the field of probability, where he derived the first version of the law of large numbers in his work Ars Conjectandi.
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Jacob Burckhardt
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- Studied theology
- Occupations
- authorhistorianuniversity teacherphilologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. Sigfried Giedion described Burckhardt's achievement in the following terms: "The great discoverer of the age of the Renaissance, he first showed how a period should be treated in its entirety, with regard not only for its painting, sculpture and architecture, but for the social institutions of its daily life as well."
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Johann Bernoulli
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicianphysicistacademicmathematician
- Biography
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Johann Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He is known for his contributions to infinitesimal calculus and educating Leonhard Euler in the pupil's youth.
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John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- Studied in 1614-1615
- Occupations
- politicianmilitary personnel
- Biography
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John Maurice of Nassau, called "the Brazilian" for his fruitful period as governor of Dutch Brazil, was Count and (from 1664) Prince of Nassau-Siegen. He served as Herrenmeister (equivalent to Grand Master) of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg) from 1652 until his death in 1679.
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Iona Yakir
- Occupations
- politicianrevolutionarymilitary officerchemistpolitical commissar
- Biography
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Iona Emmanuilovich Yakir was a Red Army commander and one of the world's major military reformers between World War I and World War II. He was an early and major military victim of the Great Purge, alongside Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
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Marion Gräfin Dönhoff
- Occupations
- journalisteditor-in-chiefresistance fighteropinion journalist
- Biography
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Marion Hedda Ilse Gräfin von Dönhoff was a German journalist and publisher who participated in the resistance against Nazism, along with Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. After the war, she became one of Germany's leading journalists and intellectuals, working for over 55 years as an editor and later publisher of the Hamburg-based weekly newspaper Die Zeit.
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Uta Ranke-Heinemann
- Occupations
- writertheologianuniversity teacherCatholic theologian
- Biography
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Uta Ranke-Heinemann was a German theologian, academic, and author. In 1969, she was the first woman in the world to be habilitated in Catholic theology. She held a chair of ancient Church history and the New Testament at the University of Duisburg-Essen. When her license to teach was revoked by the bishop because of her critical position in matters of faith, the university created a nondenominational chair of History of Religion. Her 1988 book Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, criticising the Catholic Church's stance on women and sexuality, was published in several editions, and translated in 12 languages. Her 1992 book Nein und Amen, revised in 2002, said there were "fairy tales you don't need to believe to have a living faith".
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Johann Reuchlin
- Occupations
- university teachertranslatorwriterjuristphilosopher
- Biography
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Johann Reuchlin, sometimes called Johannes, was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Most of Reuchlin's career centered on advancing German knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.
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Peter Duesberg
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teachervirologist
- Biography
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Peter H. Duesberg is a German-American molecular biologist and a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his early research into the genetic aspects of cancer. He is a proponent of AIDS denialism, the claim that HIV does not cause AIDS.
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Johann Jakob Bachofen
- Occupations
- gender studies scholarsociologistart historianphilosopherhistorian
- Biography
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Johann Jakob Bachofen was a Swiss antiquarian, jurist, philologist, anthropologist, and professor of Roman law at the University of Basel from 1841 to 1844.
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Jacques Dubochet
- Occupations
- molecular biologist
- Biography
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Jacques Dubochet is a retired Swiss biophysicist. He is a former researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, and an honorary professor of biophysics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
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Paul Hermann Müller
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- Studied in 1919
- Occupations
- physicianchemist
- Biography
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Paul Hermann Müller, also known as Pauly Mueller, was a Swiss chemist who received the 1948 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1939 discovery of insecticidal qualities and use of DDT in the control of vector diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.
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Sebastian Brant
- Occupations
- writerpoet lawyerpoetlyricistphilosopher
- Biography
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Sebastian Brant was a German humanist and satirist. He is best known for his satire Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools).
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Wolfhart Pannenberg
- Occupations
- writertheologianuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Wolfhart Pannenberg was a German Lutheran theologian. He made a number of significant contributions to modern theology, including his concept of history as a form of revelation centered on the resurrection of Christ, which has been widely debated in both Protestant and Catholic theology, as well as by non-Christian thinkers.
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Thomas Borer
- Occupations
- diplomatlobbyistconsultant
- Biography
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Thomas Gustav Borer is a Swiss management consultant, lobbyist and former diplomat. From 1996 to 1999 he headed the Switzerland – Second World War Task Force. He then was Switzerland's ambassador to Germany until 2002.
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Ole Worm
- Occupations
- naturalistuniversity teacherprehistorianphysicistarchaeologist
- Biography
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Ole Worm, who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Latin, physics and medicine.
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Kurt Wüthrich
- Occupations
- biophysicistuniversity teacherchemist
- Biography
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Kurt Wüthrich is a Swiss chemist/biophysicist and Nobel Chemistry laureate, known for developing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for studying biological macromolecules.
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Tadeusz Reichstein
- Occupations
- university teacherscientistbotanistchemistphysician
- Biography
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Tadeusz Reichstein, also known as Tadeus Reichstein, was a Polish-Swiss chemist and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (1950), which was awarded for his work on the isolation of cortisone.
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Werner Arber
- Occupations
- biologistgeneticistphysicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Werner Arber is a Swiss microbiologist and geneticist. Along with American researchers Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans, Werner Arber shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of restriction endonucleases. Their work would lead to the development of recombinant DNA technology.
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Carl Jacob Burckhardt
- Occupations
- historiandiplomat
- Biography
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Carl Jacob Burckhardt was a Swiss diplomat and historian. His career alternated between periods of academic historical research and diplomatic postings; the most prominent of the latter were League of Nations High Commissioner for the Free City of Danzig (1937–39) and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (1945–48).
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Michael Maier
- Occupations
- composermysticalchemistmythographerphysician
- Biography
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Michael Maier was a German physician and counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg. He was a learned alchemist, epigramist, and amateur composer.
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Johann Jakob Balmer
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistmathematician
- Biography
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Johann Jakob Balmer was a Swiss mathematician best known for his work in physics, the Balmer series of hydrogen atom.
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Franciscus Sylvius
- Occupations
- naturalistuniversity teacherprofessorchemistanatomist
- Biography
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Franciscus Sylvius, born Franz de le Boë, was a Dutch physician and scientist (chemist, physiologist and anatomist) who was an early champion of Descartes', Van Helmont's and William Harvey's work and theories. He was one of the earliest defenders of the theory of circulation of the blood in the Netherlands, and commonly falsely cited as the inventor of gin – others pinpoint the origin of gin to Italy.
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Rolf M. Zinkernagel
- Occupations
- physicianuniversity teacherimmunologistprofessor
- Biography
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Rolf Martin Zinkernagel AC is a professor of experimental immunology at the University of Zurich. Along with Peter C. Doherty, he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells.
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Gaspard Bauhin
- Occupations
- mycologistuniversity teachernaturalistbotanistphysician
- Biography
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Gaspard Bauhin or Caspar Bauhin, was a Swiss botanist whose Pinax theatri botanici (1623) described thousands of plants and classified them in a manner that draws comparisons to the later binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus. He was a disciple of the famous Italian physician Girolamo Mercuriale and he also worked on human anatomical nomenclature.
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Charles Albert Gobat
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Charles Albert Gobat was a Swiss lawyer, educational administrator, and politician who jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize with Élie Ducommun in 1902 for their leadership of the Permanent International Peace Bureau.
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Thomas Bartholin
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Thomas Bartholin was a Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian. He discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of refrigeration anesthesia, being the first to describe it scientifically.
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Johannes Althusius
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- In 1586 graduated with doctorate
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterjuristpoliticianphilosopher
- Biography
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Johannes Althusius was a German-French jurist and Calvinist political philosopher.
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Luc Hoffmann
- Occupations
- naturalistenvironmentalistornithologist
- Biography
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Hans Lukas "Luc" Hoffmann was a Swiss ornithologist, conservationist, and philanthropist. He co-founded the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), helped establish the Ramsar Convention for the protection of wetlands, and set up the Tour du Valat research centre in the Camargue area of France. In 2012, Luc Hoffmann's MAVA Foundation, along with WWF International, established the Luc Hoffmann Institute. He was the author of more than 60 books, mostly ornithological.
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John Howard Yoder
- Occupations
- writertheologianuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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John Howard Yoder was an American Mennonite theologian and ethicist best known for his defense of Christian pacifism. His most influential book was The Politics of Jesus, which was first published in 1972. Yoder was a Mennonite and wrote from an Anabaptist perspective. He spent the latter part of his career teaching at the University of Notre Dame.
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Heinrich Khunrath
- Occupations
- writerphysicianphilosopherastrologer
- Biography
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Heinrich Khunrath, or Dr. Henricus Khunrath as he was also called, was a German physician, hermetic philosopher, and alchemist. Frances Yates considered him to be a link between the philosophy of John Dee and Rosicrucianism. His name, in the spelling "Henricus Künraht" was used as a pseudonym for the 1670 publisher of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus of Baruch Spinoza.
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Johann Arndt
- Occupations
- theologianparsonwriter
- Biography
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Johann Arndt was a German Lutheran theologian who wrote several influential books of devotional Christianity. Although reflective of the period of Lutheran Orthodoxy, he is seen as a forerunner of Pietism, a movement within Lutheranism that gained strength in the late 17th century.
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Roland Wiesendanger
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Roland Wiesendanger is a German physicist, specializing in nanoscience. Since 1993 he has been a full professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany.
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Sibel Arslan
- Occupations
- politicianjurist
- Biography
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Sibel Arslan is a Turkish-born Swiss lawyer and politician who currently serves on the National Council (Switzerland) for the movement BastA! (Green Party). There she concurrently also is a representative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2020. She previously served on the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt between 2005 and 2016.
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Emil Abderhalden
- Occupations
- university teacherracial theoristphysicianpoliticianphysiologist
- Biography
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Emil Abderhalden was a Swiss biochemist and physiologist. His main findings, though disputed already in the 1910s, were not finally rejected until the late 1990s. Whether his misleading findings were based on fraud or simply the result of a lack of scientific rigor remains unclear. Abderhalden's drying pistol, used in chemistry, was first described by one of his students in a textbook Abderhalden edited.
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Ernst Beyeler
- Occupations
- patron of the artsart dealermerchantcollectorart collector
- Biography
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Ernst Beyeler was a Swiss art dealer and collector, who became "Europe’s pre-eminent dealer in modern art", according to The New York Times, and "the greatest art dealer since the war", according to The Daily Telegraph. In 1982, he and his wife founded the Beyeler Foundation to show his private collection, which on his death was valued at US$1.85 billion.
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Caleb Gattegno
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- In 1937 graduated with Doctor in mathematics
- Occupations
- mathematicianeducator
- Biography
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Caleb Gattegno was an Egyptian educator, psychologist, and mathematician. He is considered one of the most influential and prolific mathematics educators of the twentieth century. He is best known for introducing new approaches to teaching and learning mathematics (Visible & Tangible Math), foreign languages (The Silent Way) and reading (Words in Color). Gattegno also developed pedagogical materials for each of these approaches, and was the author of more than 120 books and hundreds of articles largely on the topics of education and human development.
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Aurelia Frick
- Occupations
- politicianinternational forum participantlawyer
- Biography
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Aurelia Cäcilia Katharina Frick commonly known as Aurelia Frick is a Liechtensteiner politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Culture from 2009 to 2019.
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Otto Stich
- Occupations
- economistpolitician
- Biography
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Otto Anton Stich was a Swiss professor and politician. He served as a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1984 to 1995 and held the Swiss presidency in 1988 and 1994.
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Otto Brunfels
- Occupations
- university teachertheologianbiologistpharmacistphysician
- Biography
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Otto Brunfels was a German theologian and botanist. Carl von Linné listed him among the "Fathers of Botany".
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Beatrice Weder di Mauro
- Occupations
- university teacherbankereconomistinternational forum participantphilosopher
- Biography
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Beatrice Weder di Mauro is a Swiss economist who is currently Professor of economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Research Professor and Distinguished Fellow-in-residence at the Emerging Markets Institute of INSEAD Singapore, and senior fellow at the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER). Since 2018, she also serves as President of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).
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Thomas Erastus
- Occupations
- theologianuniversity teacherphysician
- Biography
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Thomas Erastus was a Swiss physician and Calvinist theologian. He wrote 100 theses (later reduced to 75) in which he argued that the sins committed by Christians should be punished by the State, and that the Church should not withhold sacraments as a form of punishment. They were published in 1589, after his death, with the title Explicatio gravissimae quaestionis. His name was later applied to Erastianism.
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Willy Burgdorfer
- Occupations
- bacteriologistparasitologistentomologist
- Biography
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Wilhelm Burgdorfer was a Swiss-American scientist and an international leader in the field of medical entomology. He discovered the bacterial pathogen that causes Lyme disease, a spirochete named Borrelia burgdorferi in his honor.
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Étienne Laspeyres
- Occupations
- university teacherstatisticianeconomist
- Biography
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Ernst Louis Étienne Laspeyres was a German economist. He was Professor ordinarius of economics and statistics or State Sciences and cameralistics (public finance and administration) in Basel, Riga, Dorpat (now Tartu), Karlsruhe, and finally for 26 years in Gießen. Laspeyres was the scion of a Huguenot family of originally Gascon descent which had settled in Berlin in the 17th century, and he emphasised the Occitan pronunciation of his name as a link to his Gascon origins.
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Nicolaus II Bernoulli
- Occupations
- university teachermathematician
- Biography
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Nicolaus II Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician as were his father Johann Bernoulli and one of his brothers, Daniel Bernoulli. He was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family.
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Bruno Frey
- Occupations
- university teacherinternational forum participanteconomist
- Biography
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Bruno S. Frey is a Swiss economist and visiting professor for Political Economy at the University of Basel. Frey's research topics include Political economy and Happiness economics, with his published work including concepts derived from Psychology, Sociology, Jurisprudence, History, Arts, and Theology.
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Stanisław Potocki
- Occupations
- warlorddiplomat
- Biography
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Stanisław "Rewera" Potocki was a Polish noble, magnate and military leader. Together with Stefan Czarniecki he was successful in defeating the invading Swedes and Russians during The Deluge. He was the most trusted advisor of King John II Casimir.
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Urs Widmer
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Urs Widmer was a Swiss novelist, playwright, an essayist, and a short story writer.
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Thomas Murner
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- 1518-1519 studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- writerCatholic priestuniversity teacherpoettranslator
- Biography
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Thomas Murner, OFM was an Alsatian satirist, poet and translator.
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Carl Christian von Weizsäcker
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- In 1961 graduated with Doctor of Political Science
- Occupations
- economistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Carl Christian von Weizsäcker is a German economist who currently works as a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods (MPI-EG), having emerited from the University of Cologne in 2003. Throughout his career, von Weizsäcker has worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the universities of Heidelberg, Bielefeld, Bonn, Bern and Cologne. His research focuses on welfare economics, the theory of capital, the history of economics, the Eurozone crisis, climate policy, and the social market economy. Within his profession, he is notably a founding member and fellow of the European Economic Association. In 2014, von Weizsäcker was awarded the Gustav Stolper Prize in recognition for his contributions to economic debate in Germany. He is also a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Eva Herzog
- Occupations
- politicianhistorian
- Biography
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Eva Herzog is a Swiss politician who has represented Basel-Stadt in the Council of States since 2019 and has served as the President of the Council since 2023. She is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS).
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Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner
- Occupations
- physicistastronomerastrophysicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner was a German astrophysicist who studied optical illusions. He was also an early psychical investigator.
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Janusz Radziwiłł
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Janusz Radziwiłł was a noble and magnate of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was the deputy cup-bearer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1599, the castellan of Vilnius since 1619, and the starost of Borysów. Radziwiłł also held the title of Reichsfürst (Imperial Prince) of the Holy Roman Empire.
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Johann II Bernoulli
- Occupations
- physicistmathematicianuniversity teacherentomologist
- Biography
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Johann II Bernoulli was the youngest of the three sons of the Swiss mathematician Johann Bernoulli. He studied law and mathematics, and, after travelling in France, was for five years professor of eloquence in the university of his native city. In 1736 he was awarded the prize of the French Academy for his suggestive studies of aether. On the death of his father he succeeded him as professor of mathematics in the University of Basel. He was thrice a successful competitor for the prizes of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. His prize subjects were the capstan, the propagation of light, and the magnet. He enjoyed the friendship of P. L. M. de Maupertuis, who died under his roof while on his way to Berlin. He himself died in 1790. His two sons, Johann and Jakob, are the last noted mathematicians of the Bernoulli family.
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Hermann Dietrich
- Occupations
- politicianlawyerjurist
- Biography
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Hermann Robert Dietrich was a German politician of the liberal German Democratic Party and served as a minister during the Weimar Republic.
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Giora Yoseftal
- Occupations
- lawyerjuristeconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Dr Giora Yoseftal was an Israeli politician who held several ministerial portfolios in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
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János Szentágothai
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- 1939-1940 studied anatomy
- Occupations
- politiciananatomistuniversity teacherneuroscientist
- Biography
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János Szentágothai FRS was a Kossuth Prize-winning Hungarian anatomist, Professor, Member of Parliament, and President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.His father was Antal Géza MD, great-grandfather was Alexander Lumniczer (whose brother-in-law was Schöpf-Merei Ágost). The general assembly of UNESCO decided the year 2012 to be dedicated to honour the 100th birthday of János Szentágothai.
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Hans-Peter Tschudi
- Occupations
- politicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Hans-Peter Tschudi was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1959–1973) heading the Department of Home Affairs (Swiss interior minister).
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Thomas Fincke
- Occupations
- physicistmathematicianphysicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Thomas Fincke was a Danish mathematician and physicist, and a professor at the University of Copenhagen for more than 60 years.
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Johannes Jacob Wecker
- Occupations
- physicianchemist
- Biography
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Johannes Jacob Wecker was a Swiss physician and philosopher.
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Nello Celio
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Nello Celio was a Swiss politician from the Canton of Ticino. He was a member of the Free Democratic Party. He was a member of the Federal Council from 1966 to 1973 and served as the President of the Swiss Confederation in 1972.
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Michael N. Hall
- Occupations
- molecular biologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Michael Nip Hall is an American-Swiss molecular biologist and professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He discovered TOR, a protein central for regulating cell growth.
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Felix Platter
- Occupations
- academicpsychiatristuniversity teacherbotanistphysician writer
- Biography
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Felix Platter was a Swiss physician, well known for his classification of psychiatric diseases, and was also the first to describe an intracranial tumour (a meningioma).
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Johann III Bernoulli
- Occupations
- translatormathematicianphilosopherphysicistastronomer
- Biography
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Johann III Bernoulli, grandson of Johann Bernoulli and son of Johann II Bernoulli, was a Swiss mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and geographer, known around the world as a child prodigy.
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Johann Bauhin
- Occupations
- mycologistphysicianuniversity teacherbotanist
- Biography
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Johann Bauhin (12 December 1541 – 26 October 1613) was a Swiss botanist, born in Basel. He was the son of physician Jean Bauhin and the brother of physician and botanist Gaspard Bauhin.
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Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter is a Swiss jurist and politician of The Centre (formerly known as the Christian Democratic People's Party).
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Hans Martin Sutermeister
- Occupations
- novelistmedical writerpsychiatristphysician writerwriter
- Biography
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Hans Martin Sutermeister was a Swiss physician and medical writer, politician, and activist against miscarriages of justice.
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Lilian Uchtenhagen
- Occupations
- economistpolitician
- Biography
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Lilian Uchtenhagen was a Swiss politician and economist. She was one of the ten first women elected to the National Council, the Swiss Parliament's house and first women to be a candidate to the Federal Council, the Government of Switzerland.
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Johann Samuel König
- Occupations
- university teachermathematician
- Biography
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Johann Samuel König was a German mathematician.
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Gottlieb Burckhardt
- Occupations
- neurosurgeonpsychiatrist
- Biography
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Johann Gottlieb Burckhardt was a Swiss psychiatrist and the medical director of a small mental hospital in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. He is commonly regarded as having performed the first modern psychosurgical operation. Born in Basel, Switzerland, he trained as doctor at the Universities of Basel, Göttingen and Berlin, receiving his medical doctorate in 1860. In the same year he took up a teaching post in the University of Basel and established a private practice in his hometown. He married in 1863 but the following year he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and gave up his practice and relocated to a region south of the Pyrenees in search of a cure. By 1866 he had made a full recovery and returned to Basel with the intention of devoting himself to the study of nervous diseases and their treatment. In 1875, he attained a post at the Waldau University Psychiatric Clinic in Bern, and from 1876 he lectured on mental diseases at the University of Bern. Beginning in this period, he published widely on his psychiatric and neurological research findings in the medical press, developing the thesis that mental illnesses had their origins in specific regions of the brain.
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Mirjana Spoljaric Egger
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- In 1998 graduated with master's degree in philosophy
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Mirjana Spoljaric Egger is a Swiss-Croatian diplomat. Since October 2022, she has served as the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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Jean Bollack
- Occupations
- literary criticuniversity teacherphilosopherphilologist
- Biography
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Jean Bollack was a French philosopher, philologist and literary critic.
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Leo Jud
- Occupations
- theologiantranslator
- Biography
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Leo Jud, known to his contemporaries as Meister Leu, was a Swiss reformer who worked with Huldrych Zwingli in Zürich.
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Marina Carobbio Guscetti
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Marina Carobbio Guscetti is a Swiss politician of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP/PS) of which she has been the vice-chairwoman since 1 March 2008. She was the president of the National Council in 2018–2019 and became a Councillor of States in December 2019.
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Gottfried Schatz
- Occupations
- biochemistuniversity teachernon-fiction writerchemist
- Biography
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Gottfried Schatz was a Swiss-Austrian biochemist.
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Walter J. Gehring
- Occupations
- biologistgeneticistzoologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Walter Jakob Gehring was a Swiss developmental biologist who was a professor at the Biozentrum Basel of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD at the University of Zurich in 1965 and after two years as a research assistant of Ernst Hadorn he joined Alan Garen's group at Yale University in New Haven as a postdoctoral fellow.
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Johannes Oporinus
- Occupations
- linguistprinterlibrarian
- Biography
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Johannes Oporinus was a humanist printer in Basel.
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Pascale Baeriswyl
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Pascale Baeriswyl is a Swiss diplomat, Ambassador and currently Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations (UN) in New York. She was the first woman to hold the post of State Secretary of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and has headed the Swiss Mission to the UN in New York since June 2020. From January 2023 to December 2024, Baeriswyl will represent Switzerland on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), during the country's first ever term as an elected member of the council.
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Kurt Fluri
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Kurt Fluri is a Swiss politician of FDP.The Liberals (FDP), and a member of the National Council of Switzerland.
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Axel Aubert
- Occupations
- chemistbusinessperson
- Biography
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Axel Aubert was a Norwegian chemical engineer who served as Director-General of Norsk Hydro.
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Thomas Maissen
- Enrolled in the University of Basel
- Studied in 1981-1989
- 1989-1993 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- journalisthistorianuniversity teachernon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Thomas Maissen is a professor of modern history at Heidelberg University and co-director of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context". As of September 2013 he is detached as director of the German Historical Institute in Paris.
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Isaak Iselin
- Occupations
- philosopherjuristeconomist
- Biography
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Isaak Iselin was a Swiss philosopher of history and politics.
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Jakob Hermann
- Occupations
- physicistnaturalistmathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jakob Hermann was a mathematician who worked on problems in classical mechanics. He is the author of Phoronomia, an early treatise on Mechanics in Latin, which has been translated by Ian Bruce in 2015-16. In 1729, he proclaimed that it was as easy to graph a locus on the polar coordinate system as it was to graph it on the Cartesian coordinate system.
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Walter Buser
- Occupations
- journalistpoliticianjurist
- Biography
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Walter Buser was a Swiss politician from the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SDP).
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Christoph Gerber
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Christoph Gerber is a titular professor at the Department of Physics, University of Basel, Switzerland. He is the co-inventor of the atomic force microscope (AFM).
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Markus Fierz
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Markus Eduard Fierz was a Swiss physicist, particularly remembered for his formulation of spin–statistics theorem, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, particle physics, and statistical mechanics. He was awarded the Max Planck Medal in 1979 and the Albert Einstein Medal in 1989 for all his work.
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Carlo H. Séquin
- Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
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Carlo Heinrich Séquin is a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States.
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Christoph Eymann
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Christoph Eymann is a Swiss attorney and former politician who served two terms on the Swiss National Council for the Liberal-Democratic Party from 1991 to 2001 and from 2015 to 2021. His most recent term was succeeded by his former domestic partner and mother of his children, Patricia von Falkenstein. He is also a former member of the Executive Council of Basel-Stadt. Since 2019, Eymann serves as president of Schweizerische Konferenz für Sozialhilfe (SKOS). He is the father of Annina von Falkenstein, who currently serves on the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt.
