Thomas Keller

Biography

In 1983, I obtained a civil engineering degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. Subsequently, I worked at the architecture and engineering office of Santiago Calatrava, where, in 1987, I developed the structural concept of the (200-m span) Alamillo Bridge in Seville (first cable-stayed bridge without back cables). In 1992, I received my doctoral degree from ETH, under the supervision of Prof. Christian Menn. In 1996, I was appointed as a (part-time) assistant professor at the department of architecture at ETH, in 1998 as a (part-time) associate professor of structural engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, EPFL, and in 2007 as a full professor of structural engineering at EPFL. On July 31, 2024, I retired - my affiliation at EPFL continues, however, as an honorary professor. In parallel to my part-time academic work, I always worked as a practical engineer and co-owned an engineering firm.

In 2000, I created the Composite Construction Laboratory (CCLab) at EPFL. During 25 years, my research work focused on the development of material-tailored applications of composites in structural engineering and architecture. The outcome of this work is summarised in my open access monograph “Composites in Structural Engineering and Architecture’’ (10.55430/6225TKVA01), published at the day of my retirement - at that day, CCLab was also closed. I am continuing, however, to be active in the field as researcher, designer and consultant.

I was also a founding member of the International Institute for FRP in Construction (IIFC) in 2002, and a member of the CEN/TC 250 Project Team to establish the European Technical Specification “Design of Fibre-Polymer Composite Structuresˮ, CEN/TS 19101, published in 2022. The TS is planned to be converted into a Eurocode during the next 2-3 years. Currently, I am involved in the development of a Part-2 document on execution rules. 

As a practical engineer, I designed the first composite pedestrian bridge in Switzerland (Pontresina Bridge, 1997), which is also one of the first composite bridges in Europe. Furthermore, I was responsible for the structural design of the five-story Eyecatcher Building (Basel, 1998), which is still (in 2024) the tallest building in the world with a primary composite structure. I also contributed to the design of the free-form multifunctional composite sandwich roof of the Novartis Campus Entrance Building (Basel, 2006) and the hybrid Avançon (vehicular) Bridge with an adhesively bonded composite-balsa sandwich deck (Bex, 2012). Currently, I am working on the design of the 1K Bridge, a 1-km long composite pedestrian bridge in the Swiss Alps, composed of 50 bending-active modules suspended by cables.