Professor Nino Künzli, MD, PhD, MPH

Professional activities at Swiss TPH (50% FTE)

• Emeritus from Swiss TPh and Uni Basel 31.12.2022

Former activities:

• Former Head of Bachelor-Master-Doctorate Unit of the Department of Education and Training (ET)of Swiss TPH
• Leading and coordinating public health teaching in the University medical school as Full Professor of Public Health of the Medical Faculty, University of Basel (until 2022)
• Teaching in the MSc Epidemiology of University of Basel and various post-graduate and PhD courses (until 2022)
• Research: as project leader in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Chronic Disease Unit: research in environmental epidemiology in on effects of ambient air pollution and related health impact assessment (until 2022)
• Serves on National and International advisory boards, in particular in the domain of air pollution and health. President of the Swiss Federal Commission of Air Hygiene (until Dec 2023)

Other activities: SSPH+ (50% FTE)

From 2015 until October 2023, Künzli was Director of the Swiss School of Public Health (50%). SSPH+ is a foundation of now fourteen (Jan 2025) Swiss universities. It unites inter-university and interdisciplinary public health professorships in the sense of a virtual inter-university faculty of public health. The largest partner of SSPH+ is the University of Basel (>40% of public health-oriented professorships) and the Swiss TPH in particular. The SSPH+ management office is in Zurich.

Künzli has been Co-Editor in Chief of the scientific journal International Journal of Public Health (owned by the Swiss School of Public Health and published by Frontiers, Lausanne) since 2012. Under his leadership, the IJPH became fully self-financed as he negotiated profit shares from SpringerNature. The open access publishing agreement with Frontiers (since 2021) not only guarantees that all costs of the now two SSPH+ journals (namely the independent editorial office, which is based at Swiss TPH) are covered, but also generates additional income for SSPH+ . From this, it supports authors from low-income countries and the further development of the SSPH+ journals and doctoral training. As representative of the SSPH+ Directorate, Künzli is responsible for the contractual and strategic responsibilities of the two SSPH+ journals (IJPH and PHR) and supervisor of the Editorial Mana

The Lancet features SSPH+

Higher education and qualifications

• 1983 Medical Exam University of Basel
• 1986 MD University of Basel
• 1992 MPH (Master in Public Health) University of California Berkeley, USA
• 1996 PhD in Epidemiology, University of California Berkeley, USA
• 2000 Venia docendi (Habilitation - PD / Assisstant professor) University of Basel Medical Faculty

Past professional activities

• Since 2010 Deputy Director Swiss TPH; 2010-2015: Head of Department of Epidemiology and Public Health; 2015-2021 Head of Department of Education and Training (ET)
• Since May 2009 Full Professor / Chair of Social and Preventive Medicine / Public Health University of Basel Medical Faculty (director of former Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine Basel)
• 2006-2009 ICREA Research Professor at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, CREAL; head of air pollution research group   
• 2002-2005 Associate Professor with tenure University of Southern California Los Angeles, Division of Environmental Health at the Department of Preventive Medicine
• 1996-2002 PROSPER Senior Researcher fellowship of Swiss National Science Foundation at Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine University Basel
• 1996  Research advisor Swiss Lung Association
• 1995-1996 PhD Fellowship of SwissLung (1 year, 20%)
• 1992-1995 SNF PROPSER Fellowship for MPH and PhD, University of California Berkeley, USA
• 1989-1992 Research assistant in air pollution epidemiology, coordinator of Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults SAPALDIA
• Since 1998: Steering Committee member, Work package leader, principal and/or co-investigator of large cohort, exposure assessment or health impact studies in the field of air pollution and health (SAPALDIA; European ECRHS; European ESCAPE and TRANSPHORM; Spanish REGICOR-AIR; USC Children’s Health Study and TROY; EXPOLIS; APHEKOM and others)