Prof. Christian Rüegg, at present Head of the Neutron and Muon Research Division (NUM) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), was appointed a new member of the Directorate by the ETH Board at its meeting of 16/17 May, on application of PSI Director Joël Mesot.
Christian Rüegg hails from the Canton of Aargau, studied physics at ETH Zurich and obtained his doctorate in the Laboratory for Neutron Scattering at ETH Zurich and PSI in 2005. From 2005 to 2011, he worked at the London Centre for Nanotechnology of University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London, first as a postdoc and then as a lecturer, Royal Society University Research Fellow and reader. From 2011 to 2016, he headed the Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging (LNS) in the Neutron and Muon Division (NUM) at PSI. He has been an Honorary Professor at UCL since 2011, professor at the University of Geneva since 2012 and Head of the NUM Research Division at PSI since 2017.
Christian Rüegg is a solid-state physicist and examines the behaviour of quantum magnets. Such nuclear magnets are of crucial interest both for basic research and for later applications in quantum technologies. Rüegg’s research has been awarded some reputable science prizes. An ERC Consolidator Grant, among other things, is funding his current projects, which aim to examine magnetic quantum systems, also with the help of the SwissFEL. Christian Rüegg is a member of numerous national and international scientific bodies, particularly also in the field of the instrumentation and utilisation of neutron sources.
