State Secretary Martina HIRAYAMA
Head of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation
Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research
State Secretary Martina Hirayama studied Chemistry at the ETH Zurich, the University of Fribourg and Imperial College London, graduating from ETH Zurich with a doctorate in technical sciences (Dr. sc. Techn). She went on to do postgraduate studies in Business Economics at the ETH Zurich, and completed her thesis in 1997. She then worked in the ETH Zurich’s Department of Materials, becoming head of the Polymer Chemistry Group in 2001.
During this time, State Secretary Hirayama co-founded a start-up in new coating technologies, and was CEO of the company until 2008.
In 2003 she began lecturing in Industrial Chemistry at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur ZHW (now ZHAW), where she developed and headed the field of polymer materials and obtained her professorship.
From 2007 to 2010 she developed the ZHAW’s Institute of Materials and Process Engineering. From 2011 to 2018 she was Director of the ZHAW School of Engineering, a member of the university’s executive board and from 2014 head of International Affairs.
From 2012 to 2018 State Secretary Hirayama was president of the board of the Federal Institute of Metrology METAS, from 2011 to 2018 vice president of the Innovation Promotion Agency Innosuisse board (until 2017 the Commission for Technology and Innovation) and from 2016 to 2018 a member of the Swiss National Science Foundation board. She was also on the boards and executive committees of several other organisations, namely the Swiss Study Foundation, the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences SATW, the Zurich Chamber of Commerce, and the Kuratorium of the Freiburger Materialforschungszentrum at the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg (Germany). Moreover, she acted as an expert for the National Research Fund Luxembourg (FNR) and the European Commission.
Since 1 January 2019 State Secretary Martina Hirayama is Head of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation at Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research.
H.E. Dr. Andreas BAUM
Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan
Prof. Dr. Michael O. HENGARTNER
President of the ETH Board
Mr. Allan SUMIYAMA
Head of the Corporate Technology Strategy Division, Sony Group Corporation
Ms. Kyoko MARUMO SUZUKI
Head of the Science and Technology Office Tokyo,
Embassy of Switzerland in Japan
Mr. Raymond CRON
CEO
Switzerland Innovation
Prof. Dr. Mikołaj Jan PISKORSKI
Professor of Digital Strategy, Analytics and Innovation
Dean of Asia and Oceania
IMD
Prof. Dr. Osamu WATANABE
Executive Vice President for Research
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Prof. Dr. Christian SCHWARZENEGGER
Vice President, Faculty Affairs and Scientific Information
University of Zurich
Dr. Gianluca AMBROSETTI
CEO and Co-Founder
Synhelion
Mr. Thomas BRODBECK
President, Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan (SCCIJ)
Head of Technical Service, Sika Japan
Ms. Naoko OGAWA
Director, Industrial Technology Bureau
KEIDANREN (Japan Business Federation)
Mr. Tetsuya TANAKA
Deputy Director-General
Industrial Science, Technology and Environment Policy Bureau
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)