Swiss Young Academy elects a new Executive Board and Speaker

Bern, 15 July 2022

Press release

At their Members' Assembly Meeting on 10 June 2022, the members of the Swiss Young Academy elected their new Executive Board, and its leaders. Three members of the Executive Board were standing for re-election. Two new members were elected, Mey Boukenna and Sofie Behluli. The members also appointed Florian Egli as speaker, on a proposal from the new Executive Board. It is his third term of office on the Executive Board. Mey Boukenna will serve as the new vice-speaker.

The newly-elected Executive Board of the Swiss Young Academy consists of the following five members:

• Florian Egli, Senior Researcher and Lecturer, Energy and Technology Policy Group, ETH Zurich; speaker of the Swiss Young Academy 2022/23
• Mey Boukenna, PhD candidate at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, University of Bern, and Assistant Cardiologist at the Inselspital in Bern; vice-speaker of the Swiss Young Academy 2022/23
• Sofie Behluli, Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Department of English, University of Bern
• Darius Farman, Co-director, Thinktank foraus
• Lucas Mueller, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Geneva

After being elected as speaker, Florian Egli emphasized how keen he is to provide a platform for fresh minds from science with new ideas: “We need the ideas of young scientists and academics and diverse perspectives for a far-sighted policy. The Swiss Young Academy’s network, with its collaborative spirit, is the ideal platform for this.” The new vice-speaker, Mey Boukenna, followed on by saying: “The Swiss Young Academy gives us a wonderful framework for fostering exchange across many disciplines and exploring new approaches to solutions. As a member of this year’s Executive Board, I am looking forward to helping to shape this exchange, so as to support the emergence of new projects.”

In addition, Lucas Mueller’s great commitment as speaker during the previous term of office was acknowledged. He was instrumental in, among other things, addressing the issue of the difficult working conditions of non-professorial teaching staff, both within and outside the Swiss Young Academy.

The Executive Board’s term of office begins each year with a constitutive meeting following the Members' Assembly Meeting and lasts for one year. The Executive Board’s tasks include the preparation of business items and the annual budget planning, which are submitted to the Members' Assembly. The speaker represents the Swiss Young Academy internally and externally and chairs the Executive Board.