Team

Prof. Dr. med. Alexander M. Huber is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. His clinical interests are in otology and skull base surgery. After medical school and board exam, he worked in different clinical and research institutions in Switzerland (University Zurich), USA (Stanford University Medical Centre; Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary) and UK (Guy’s and St. Thomas Hospital Trust, Kings College, London). He is actively practicing otology and skull base surgery and performed over 4000 surgical interventions in this field. He has published more than 135 articles in refereed journals with over 2900 citations. He holds six national and international awards and over 20 research grants. His research interest is focused on middle ear mechanics, cochlear and middle ear implants as well as vestibular Schwannoma and paraganglioma studies.

Prof. Dr. med. Christof Röösli is a Professor of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. His clinical interests are in otology, cochlear implants, and skull base surgery. After his training in Luzern and Zurich, he spent a year at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston for a research fellowship, before he became a faculty member in Zurich. He is currently the head of the Swiss otology group. He has published around 100 peer reviewed articles and holds 10 national and international awards. His research interest is bone conduction hearing and bone conduction implants, cochlear implants, vestibular schwannoma and middle ear mechanics. His research is funded by the Swiss national Foundation.

Prof. Dr. Jae Hoon Sim is leading research on middle-ear at the Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. His research focuses have been on both basic science and clinical research on middle-ear mechanics and middle-ear surgeries. He obtained his master degree at the Dept. Mechanical Design and Product Engineering, Seoul National University (Seoul, Korea), and his PhD degree at the Dept. Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University (USA). 

Flurin Pfiffner is the Head of Research at the Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. He holds a master degree in micro-engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and a PhD degree in biomedical science from the University of Berne. He worked in the hearing implant industry (Cochlear Ltd) as clinical and research specialist for several years. His research interest focuses on translational research in audiology and hearing implants, such as implantable bone conduction hearing systems and cochlear implants.

Adrian Dalbert is clinician-scientist and faculty member at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. After his ENT training in Zurich, Lucerne, and Basel, he became a faculty member in Zurich with a focus on otology and audiology. Recently, he completed a clinical fellowship in otology/skull base surgery at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. His research focuses on audiology and cochlear implants with a strong interest in electrophysiology.

Ivo Dobrev is a research associate at the Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. He holds bachelor degrees in mechanical engineering and robotics, as well as a PhD degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA, USA. He has worked on a variety of projects involving optical metrology and non-destructive testing in engineering, art-conservation and bio-medical applications. His research interests include biomechanics, optical metrology, numerical modeling, and the mechanics of the human hearing. Currently, he is working on projects related to middle-ear mechanics, bone conduction pathways, and the effective cochlear activation under bone conduction.

Lukas Prochazka received his PhD from the ETH Zurich in 2011. Since 2016, he is working as a research associate at the University of Zurich/ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery.  His current research activity is focused on the development of an implantable acoustic receiver for totally implantable cochlear implant systems. His research interests include pressure sensor technology, interferometry, implantable sensor systems, and MEMS fabrication technology.

Merlin Schär is a postdoc at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Science of the University of Zurich in 2022. As a graduate of the medical school at the University of Zurich, he had joined the MD-PhD program and the graduate school of the Neuroscience Center Zurich (ZNZ), and completed his PhD thesis in middle-ear mechanics under supervision by PD Dr. Jae Hoon Sim and Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber. His research interests include biomechanics, mathematical modeling, and computational science. Currently, he is working on projects related to the modeling of the human tympanic membrane and the development of new features for a robot-assisted visualization system for reconstructive middle-ear surgery.

Leanne Sijgers is a postdoctoral researcher at the Otorhinolaryngology department of the University Hospital Zurich. She holds an MSc. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and completed her PhD thesis on cochlear implants and electrophysiology within the ‘Otology and Biomechanics of Hearing’ research group in 2022. Her PhD was supervised by Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber and co-supervised by PD Dr. Flurin Pfiffner and Prof. Dr. Norbert Dillier. Currently, she is working on the development of methods for investigating the electrode-neural interface and automatically adapting signal processing parameters in cochlear implant users.  

Rahel Bertschinger is a PhD candidate at the Otorhinolaryngology department of the University Hospital Zurich, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber, and co-supervised by PD Dr. Flurin Pfiffner. Her research aims to investigate the feasibility of extra cochlear electrical stimulation as a hearing therapy as well as a treatment for tinnitus. She did her BSc. and MSc. in Biomedicine at the University of Zurich and is now enrolled in the doctoral program Clinical Science at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zurich.

Bastian Baselt is a PhD student in Clinical Science at the department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University Hospital Zürich. After completing medical school at University of Fribourg and University of Zürich, he joined the group "Otology and Biomechanics of Hearing". His current research focuses on the function of the human tympanic membrane such as the correlation between its morphometry and vibrational motion and the analysis of its vibrational patterns. He is supervised by PD Dr. Jae Hoon Sim and Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber.

Marlies Geys is a a PhD candidate at the Otorhinolaryngology department of the University Hospital Zurich, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber and PD Dr. Flurin Pfiffner. She obtained her MSc. degree in Audiology Sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Before joining the group “Otology and Biomechanics of Hearing”, she worked as a clinical audiologist in hearing and vestibular diagnostic at the Otorhinolaryngology department of the University Hospital Zürich. Her research focuses on developing and testing measurements to partially automate cochlear implant fitting.

Ahmet Kunut is a Dr. med candidate at the Otorhinolaryngology department of the University Hospital Zurich, under the supervision of Dr. Adrian Dalbert. He completed his medical studies at the University of Zurich. His research is aimed at basic research on the physiology of the cochlea on the one hand, and the study of electrophysiological changes during and after cochlear implantation on the other.

Dominik Etter is a PhD student in the X-Ray Imaging and Microscopy group at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Due to the cross-disciplinary nature of his research project he is under the supervision of Prof. Marco Stampanoni from ETH Zurich and Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber from University Hospital Zurich. He holds an MSc. in Interdisciplinary Sciences, Physics & Biology track, from ETH Zurich and completed his master thesis on the topic of dark field imaging of the lung in 2021. After graduating, he worked for PMOD Technologies GmbH for two years as an application specialist before joining the group in early 2024. Currently, he is working on improving ear CT with refraction using grating interferometry and projects related to the study of middle-ear mechanics.
 

Antonio Garcia is a PhD candidate at the Otorhinolaryngology department of the University Hospital Zurich under the supervision of Ivo Dobrev and Prof. Dr. Christof Röösli. He holds a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering and a MSc. in Production Systems Engineering from the ICAI University in Madrid and the RWTH University in Aachen respectively. Later on, he worked in the industry for Novelis AG and ABB Ltd at different engineering roles. Among his research interests are light-based metrology, material sciences and numerical analysis. His current research focusses on mechanisms for bone conduction propagation and inner ear stimulation.

Johannes Niermann is a PhD student at the department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University Hospital Zurich. He holds an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. His research interests in computational mechanics resulted in the publication of the work of his Master's thesis on Li-Ion batteries in the peer-reviewed journal Computational Mechanics. Under the co-supervision of Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber, PD Dr. Flurin Pfiffner and Ivo Dobrev, he is collaborating with researchers from EMPA and ETH on the development of experimentally validated subject-specific numerical models of the bone conduction behavior in human heads.

Tobias Mair is a PhD candidate in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University Hospital Zurich, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Christof Röösli. After completing medical school at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), he joined the "Otology and Biomechanics of Hearing" research group in 2023. His current research focuses on the mechanisms of bone conduction propagation and inner ear stimulation in clinical and experimental contexts.

Dr. Yu Si is an associate professor of Otorhinolaryngology at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), Guangzhou, China. Shejoined us as an academic guest in 2024, investigating the round window niche veil using advanced imaging methods.

Ahmet Kunut investigated electrocochleography as a method to preserve residual hearing in both humans and mice until 2024, to obtain his Dr. med under supervision of PD Dr. Adrian Dalbert.

Osikhe Ejeah-Braimoh investigated the outcomes of tympanoplasty in children until 2023, to obtain his Dr. med under supervision of Prof. Dr. Christof Röösli.

Timona Oesch conducted her MSc. dissertation in our group to obtain a degree in medical technology from ETH Zurich. She investigated various psychophysical methods to characterize hearing outcomes in cochlear implant users, and was supervised by Prof. Dr. Olivier Lambercy, PD Dr. Flurin Pfiffner, and Marlies Geys.

Dr. Wei Fanqin is an associate professor/associate chief physician from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. He joined us as an academic guest for one year in 2023, investigating future fully implantable cochlear implants.

Tahmine Farahmandi obtained her PhD in 2023, for which she investigated sound wave propagation in bone conduction hearing. She was supervised by Prof. Dr. Christof Röösli and Dr. Ivo Dobrev and brought a background in both physics and neuroscience to our team, with degrees from the University of Mazandaran and the University of Zanjan in Iran.

Nuwan Liyanage obtained his PhD in 2023, supervised by PD Dr. Flurin Pfiffner, Prof. Dr. Tobias Kleinjung and Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber. His work contributed to the development of a fully implantable cochlear implant, and in addition, he studied the effect of cochlear implants on tinnitus relief. Nuwan has a background in electrical and biomedical engineering, with degrees from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and the University of Ghent, Belgium.

Birthe Warnholtz completed her PhD thesis on middle ear mechanics and surgical reconstruction in 2021, under supervision of Prof. Dr. Jae Hoon Sim and Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber. Prior to joining our group, she studied biology and chemistry at Stockholm University and the University of Konstanz. 

Katharina Suntinger investigated the use of electrocochleography for residual hearing preservation until 2021, receiving her Dr. med. under supervision of PD Dr. Adrian Dalbert.

Chiara Ermanni studied the influence of sutures and fractures on the transmission of sound waves in bone conduction hearing until 2021, obtaining her Dr. med. under supervision of Prof. Dr. Christof Röösli and Dr. Ivo Dobrev. 

Pascale Cuny investigated the influence of angular positioning of the prosthesis in stapes surgeries until 2019, obtaining her Dr. med. under supervision of Prof. Dr. Jae Hoon Sim and Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber. 

Rahel Kesterke completed her PhD thesis on biomechanical analysis of the middle-ear ossicles in 2015, under supervision of Prof. Dr. Jae Hoon Sim and Prof. Dr. Alexander Huber. Prior to joining our group, she studied Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bern.