Tanja Zimmermann (born August 10, 1967) is a Swiss
materials scientist
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries.
The intellectual origins of materials scien ...
and
wood researcher, professor of materials science and technology at the School of Engineering at
EPFL and the Department of Materials at
ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...
, who is an elected fellow (''FIAWS'') of the
International Academy of Wood Science.
Since 2022, Zimmermann serves as the director of the
(EMPA) in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
Biography
Zimmermann was born in 1967 in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
.
She pursued her studies in
wood science
Wood science is the scientific field which predominantly studies and investigates elements associated with the formation, the physical and chemical composition, and the macro- and microstructure of wood as a bio-based and lignocellulosic materi ...
and technology at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...
in the years 1987–1992. She completed her MSc at EMPA, working upon the analysis and characterization of the surfaces of spruce wood. In the years 1994-2000, she worked as a research scientist at the wood department of Empa. During the period 2002-2006, she did her PhD studies on cellulose-based materials at Empa, in collaboration with the University of Hamburg.
Between 2010 and 2022, she served as the head of the Functional Materials Department, serving also as a co-head at the Research Focus Area Sustainable Built Environment at EMPA. Her research interests are focused on functionalised wood, cellulose-based materials with upgraded properties, and in addition, on adhesives and biodegradable products for sensor and energy uses.
She possesses over 100 publications in scientific journals, in the research area of wood science and technology. She has more than 8,000 international citations at
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...
.
In cooperation with her team members, Zimmermann has won several innovation awards, like the ''"Swiss Green Economy Symposium Award''," the ''"Cadre d’Or"'' from Baukader Schweiz for the achievements in wood construction, and an award for the best innovative environmental technology at the ''Pollutec exhibition'' in
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
.
Recognition
* Fellowship,
The International Academy of Wood Science The International Academy of Wood Science (IAWS) is an international academy and a non-profit assembly of wood scientists, recognizing all fields of wood science with their associated technological domains and securing a worldwide representation.
S ...
(2010)
* SDG Award 2020, Swiss Green Economy (2020)
* Elected director of EMPA (2022)
[ ''With Tanja Zimmermann, an internationally renowned materials scientist – and the first woman in Empa's over 140-year history – takes over as head of the materials research institute''.]
References
External links
*
Scopus*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmermann, Tanja
Swiss scientists
Fellows of the International Academy of Wood Science
University of Hamburg alumni
Academic staff of ETH Zurich
Wood scientists
Living people
1967 births