Antonio Loprieno

"Switzerland’s higher education institutions are typologically and content-wise more diverse than those of its neighboring countries, yet they are also more coherent in terms of academics and the programs offered. The University of Zurich plays a pioneering role in this landscape because it has the most diverse range of studies in the whole of Switzerland, but also due to its internationally leading position in numerous areas of research. As such, the Board of the University is confronted with a dual challenge: Our overarching aim is to ensure the outstanding quality of scholarship at the University of Zurich, thus contributing to the international reputation of Switzerland’s higher education system on the whole."

Antonio Loprieno (born 1955) went to school at the European School of Brussels and studied Egyptology, Linguistics, and Semitic Studies at the University of Turin, where he also earned his doctoral degree and subsequently worked as a teaching and research associate until 1981. As a recipient of a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he successfully submitted his habilitation at the University of Göttingen. He was associate professor at the University of Perugia from 1984 until 1989, when he was appointed full professor of Egyptology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he lead the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures until 2000. During this period, Loprieno was visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris, and at Heidelberg University. Since 2000, Loprieno has been full professor of Egyptology at the University of Basel, where he acted as president from 2006–2015. He has published over 100 scholarly essays and monographs in the areas of Egyptology and Semetic Linguistics.

From 2008 to 2015, Loprieno was president of the Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS). Currently he is head of the Swiss Study Foundation and member in a variety of university boards, the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the German Archaeological Institute, and other national and international academic organizations.