New professors in mathematics and environmental sciences
The University Council has appointed Alejandra Morán Ordóñez professor of ecosystem ecology. Susanna Zimmermann is returning to her alma mater with her appointment as professor of mathematics.
15 October 2024
Professor Alejandra Morán Ordóñez is currently a senior scientist at the University of Lausanne and the University of Bern. She received her doctorate in ecology and environmental engineering from the Universidad de León, Spain, in 2012. She will take up her position as Professor of Ecosystem Ecology in the Department of Environmental Sciences on 1 February 2025.
Alejandra Morán Ordóñez has held various research fellowships and positions, including at the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications in Catalonia, the University of Melbourne, and Monash University. Her research activities have taken her across Europe, Australia, Canada and Costa Rica. Alongside her academic career, she has co-directed and collaborated on numerous international scientific assessments (e.g. IPBES), and has received funding from multiple national and European programs.
Her research focuses on conservation biology, forest ecology and the effects of global change on biodiversity and ecosystem services. She has developed integrated models for forest management and biodiversity conservation, particularly in Mediterranean forest ecosystems. Her main projects have used spatial conservation tools to evaluate trade-offs between human uses and the conservation of ecosystems and species, to optimize landscape and forest management to promote ecosystem services provision, and to identify critical areas for species and ecosystems conservation and restoration.
Professorship in mathematics
Professor Susanna Zimmermann will take up her professorship in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science on 15 February 2025. She is currently a professor at the Mathematical Institute of Orsay at Paris-Saclay University. She received her doctorate in algebraic geometry at the University of Basel in 2016. After completing her doctorate, she worked at the universities of Toulouse and Angers before taking up her current position in 2022. She was also appointed to the prestigious Institut Universitaire de France in recognition of her outstanding academic work.
Her research focuses on birational geometry and special mathematical objects, the so-called Cremona groups. These play an important role in geometry because they help us to better understand complex shapes and their properties. Susanna Zimmermann has made significant contributions to how these groups are structured and how they behave.
Her research findings have been published in some of the most respected mathematical scientific journals. In addition to her research, she is also involved in the mathematics community, organizing conferences and working as an editor for academic journals. She advocates for making mathematics more popular and is committed to promoting mathematics among young women.
Appointment as assistant professor
The President’s Office has appointed Professor Julie Ren assistant professor (without tenure track) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, effective 1 January 2025. Ren is conducting research in the Department of Social Sciences as part of the Aspirational Urbanism and the Recodification of Defiance (ASPIRA) project. The appointment has been made as part of an SNSF Starting Grant.
