Conference + Round-Table

Explore the Universe, Transform the Medicine

Monday, 2026/05/04, 17:00

A waxing crescent moon is photographed from the International Space Station during an orbital sunset as the station flies 268 miles (431 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean, east of New Zealand.

© NASA

Space exploration offers a unique opportunity to understand and improve human health. Astronaut Claudie Haigneré and her physician Anne Pavy-Le-Traon, pioneers in space medicine, along with several researchers and experts, will share their experiences and discoveries with you, demonstrating how space missions influence our understanding of the human body and open up new horizons for medicine.

Event organizer: Center for Space and Habitability (CSH), French Embassy to Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Speaker: Various
Date: 2026/05/04
Time: 17:00 - 19:00
Locality: Room 099
University of Bern, Exact Sciences Building
Sidlerstrasse 5
3012 Bern
Registration: Please register here
Characteristics: open to the public
free of charge

Co-organized by the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern and the French Embassy to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, this event brings together people from different sectors at the intersection of research, medicine and space exploration. The event is limited to 250 participants and will take place in French.

The evening will be introduced by:

Marion Paradas
French Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein

Andrea Hungerbühler
Secretary General of the University of Bern

The detailed program will be announced soon.

Speaker Profiles

European Space Agency (ESA)

Claudie Haigneré, ESA Astronaut

Claudie Haigneré began her scientific career as a rheumatologist at Cochin Hospital (Paris); she was selected by the CNES (National Center for Space Studies) in 1985 as a scientist-astronaut. She then completed her doctoral thesis in neuroscience at a CNRS laboratory. She became head of the physiology and space medicine programs at CNES. She began training in 1992 at the Star City near Moscow. She completed two space missions: first in 1996 aboard Mir, then with the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2001 aboard the International Space Station (ISS). She thus became the first Frenchwoman to go into space, and later the first European to join the ISS.

 

 

Following her active career as a European astronaut, she served successively as Minister Delegate for Research (2002–2004) and then as Minister Delegate for European Affairs (2004–2005). She served as head of Universcience and its two science centers (Palais de la découverte and Cité des Sciences) for six years (2009–2015). At ESA, as an advisor to the Director General, she focused on European space policy and lunar exploration until 2020.

She is deeply involved in foundations dedicated to promoting science and technology, particularly in guiding young women’s career choices (the L’Oréal Foundation, the CGénial Foundation, the Airbus Foundation, and the Van Allen Foundation), and frequently speaks at elementary and high schools. Many school groups are named after her.

She is a member of the Air and Space Force’s Citizen Reserve. She is a member of the French Academy of Technologies and contributes to numerous working groups dedicated to innovation. Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor.

Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology (MEDES)

Anne Pavy-Le-Traon, Specialist in Space Medicine

Anne Pavy-Le-Traon, MD, PhD, is an associate professor of neurology specializing in aerospace medicine at the University of Toulouse School of Medicine. She works as a neurologist specializing in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) at the Toulouse University Hospital (CHU) and directs the ANS Research Laboratory, which she established at the CHU. Deeply involved in space medicine, she serves as deputy medical director of MEDES (Institute of Space Physiology and Medicine) in Toulouse. She was appointed to the Medical Council of the European Space Agency in May 2018. She coordinates the aerospace medicine program at the University of Toulouse and is involved in various space medicine courses. She is vice-president of SOFRAMAS (Francophone Society of Aerospace Medicine).

Her research activities are conducted at ToNIC UMR 1214 Inserm. Her work focuses on the autonomic nervous system and cerebral circulation in neurology and space medicine, involving numerous national and international collaborations. Her most recent publications in space medicine focus on the use of simulated microgravity to study neuro-ophthalmological changes induced by spaceflight.

Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM)

Dr. Eleonore Poli, Analogue Astronaut

Dr. Eleonore Poli is an engineer and materials scientist working at CSEM, the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology. Since 2019, she has been an analog astronaut and the founder and director of CHASM (Community of Human Analog Space Missions). She has participated in several missions, leads research on parastronauts, and works on the standardization of analog missions with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern

Prof. Brice-Olivier Demory, Astrophysicist and Director CSH

Brice-Olivier Demory is Director of the Center for Space and Habitability of the University of Bern. He obtained his MSc in physics from EPFL and PhD from the University of Geneva. He spent three years at MIT to work on NASA space missions and three others at the University of Cambridge (UK). In Bern he leads an interdisciplinary research group focusing on 1) novel instrumentation for medical applications, 2) the search for life in our solar system and 3) the detection of Earth-like exoplanets. He strives to develop societal applications through his research, from cancer research to education in developing countries. He is a recipient of the Royal Society and Rutherford Research Fellowships.

MEDES - Institute for Space Physiology and Medicine

Dr. Jessica Studer, Medical Expert

Jessica Kehala Studer is a Swiss medical doctor and former professional pianist who spent a year in complete isolation at Concordia Station in Antarctica as part of the European Space Agency's "White Mars" mission. There, she conducted biomedical experiments on human physiology in extreme environments, contributing to research that prepares future deep space missions. With a background spanning classical music, biomedical sciences, and space medicine, she bridges science, exploration, and creativity to push the boundaries of human resilience on Earth and beyond.

ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Bern

Prof. Dominik Obrist, Professor of Cardiovascular Engineering

Dominik Obrist is Professor of Cardiovascular Engineering at the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research of the University of Bern. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from ETH Zurich and earned his doctoral degree in 2000 at the Department of Applied Mathematics of the University of Washington. From 2000 to 2005, he worked for the supercomputer company Cray Inc. In 2005, Dominik Obrist returned to academia as a senior researcher at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics of ETH Zurich, where he established a research group for biomedical fluid dynamics. His main research interests include the design of heart valve prostheses and the development of novel technology for the diagnosis and treatment of microvascular diseases.