Gillian Olivieri

Biographie

Gillian joined the EPFL in September 2023 as Deputy Director International Affairs. She supports the Director of International Affairs and the President in the international positioning of EPFL. Her unit proposes and implements the international strategy and launches international partnerships and projects. She is especially responsible for the coordination, participation and promotion of the European networks and the strategic supervision of the collaboration with European partners.

Previously, she worked for 7 years at the University of Warwick, UK as an Associate Director of the International Strategy and Relations team. There, she worked closely with academic and professional services colleagues to promote, develop and deliver mutually beneficial international research and education collaborations in line with the international strategy. Building and managing relationships with strategic international partners as well as key organisations, networks and policy-makers in the UK and in the University’s priority countries was another important part of her work. The team she managed was responsible for the delivery of major strategic international partnerships and programmes (e.g., EUTOPIA, Monash Warwick Alliance). 

Between 2008 and 2015, Gillian worked in the division for International Co-operation of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). She was mainly responsible for setting up bilateral research programmes with the BRICS countries, South Korea, Japan and Romania and headed the task force set up to provide Switzerland with a replacement scheme to the European Research Council grants, due to the country’s exclusion of Horizon 2020.

Gillian studied biology at the University of Lausanne and Zurich, Switzerland. She obtained her PhD from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, on the molecular phylogenetics and conservation genetics of mouse lemurs in Madagascar.