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Two new professors at the University of Basel
The University Council has elected Kirsten Mertz as Professor of General Pathology and Felix Mahfoud as Professor of Cardiology.
19 December 2023
Professor Kirsten Mertz will become the new clinical professor of general pathology at the Faculty of Medicine, with a position at the University Hospital Basel. She will take up her post on 1 July 2024.
Kirsten Mertz studied medicine at the universities of Ulm and Bonn, where she obtained her doctorate in 2001. Research stays took her to the University Hospital Zurich and to Harvard Medical School for an MD PhD program from 2005 to 2007. She continued her clinical education at the Medical University of Vienna, the University of California, San Diego, and the Cantonal Hospital of Baselland. In 2012, she was officially certified as a specialist in pathology and later as a Swiss Medical Association specialist in molecular pathology and cytology.
The University of Basel appointed her as a lecturer in 2014 and as an adjunct professor in pathology in 2020. In 2021, she also completed an Executive MBA in Medical Management at the PHW Business School Bern. Since 2015, she has been senior physician at the Cantonal Hospital of Baselland, where she manages the Departments of Molecular Pathology and Cytopathology and has co-managed the Institute of Pathology since 2022.
Her research focuses on the development and validation of molecular biomarkers for tumor diseases, inflammatory diseases and infections. In particular, it includes the use of innovative technologies in investigating somatic changes in solid tumors, the analysis of responses to immunotherapeutics and the molecular course of infections such as COVID-19.
New professor of cardiology
The University Council has selected Professor Felix Mahfoud as clinical professor of cardiology at the Faculty of Medicine. The position will begin at the University Hospital Basel on 1 June 2024. Along with his role as a clinical professor, he will also become director of the Clinic for Cardiology.
Felix Mahfoud is currently senior physician and deputy clinical director at the Clinic for Cardiology, Angiology, and Intensive Medicine at the Saarland University Medical Center in Homburg. He studied medicine at the Goethe University Frankfurt, where he obtained his doctorate in 2008. Since then, he has worked in various clinical roles at the Saarland University Medical Center.
In 2014, he was recognized as a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology and received authorization to lecture in internal medicine and cardiology at Saarland University, where he was appointed an adjunct professor in 2017. Since 2014, he has been an affiliate professor at the Harvard MIT Biomedical Engineering Center (Edelman Lab).
His research focuses on interactions between the kidneys and the heart – known as cardiorenal interactions – and on autonomous dysbalance in cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, heart failure). His research program also includes the development and validation of new interventional treatment methods for cardiovascular diseases and the establishment and execution of international multicenter studies in invasive and conservative cardiology. Felix Mahfoud’s clinical focuses are preventative medicine, and the conservative and interventional treatment of coronary heart disease, structural heart diseases and heart failure.
Eight adjunct professorships
The University Council also approved the decision by the Senate to appoint the following adjunct professors at the Faculty of Medicine:
- PD Dr. Jean-Louis Boulay for experimental medicine
- PD Dr. Martin Clauss for orthopaedics and traumatology of the musculoskeletal system
- PD Dr. Salome Dell-Kuster for anaesthesiology
- PD Dr. Luigia Elzi for infectiology
- PD Dr. Laura Infanti John for haematology
- PD Dr. Matthias Mehling for neurology
- PD Dr. Jehuda Soleman for neurosurgery
- PD Dr. Aimée Zuniga for experimental medicine
Senate awards Venia docendi
On the recommendation of three Faculties, the University Council has awarded eight people the Venia docendi and the title of Dr. habil. This authorizes the researchers to use the title of Privatdozent/Privatdozentin (lecturer) and the academic degree of Doctor habilitatus/Doctora habilitata.
Faculty of Law
- Prof. Dr. Luzius Cavelti for Swiss and international tax law and legal theory
Faculty of Medicine
- Dr. Kwadwo Antwi for nuclear medicine
- Dr. Marie-Anne Burckhardt for paediatric and adolescent medicine
- Dr. Maria Kamenova for neurosurgery
- Dr. Ioannis Lazaridis for visceral surgery
- Dr. Maurice Pradella for radiology
- Dr. Stefan Schandelmaier for clinical epidemiology
Faculty of Science
- Dr. James Robin Wootton for physics
In addition, Dr. Ina Pick was awarded the academic degree Dr. habil. at the request of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
