http://www.swiss-list.com

Created in March 1997 in the San Francisco Bay Are, the Swiss-List is an informal group of young Swiss scientists and businesses professional living in the US [Swiss not as in "Swiss Citizen" but individuals who have a close tie to Switzerland, like a higher education degree or a professional experience in Switzerland]. It now includes over 400 members working in academic, government and corporate research centers, as well as people involved in small "start-up" high-technology companies. The Swiss-List is a non-profit organization with unrestricted membership.

The goals of the Swiss-List are to:

1. Encourage networking among Swiss scientists working in the US.
   • An electronic mailing lists keeps members informed of new developments and hosts informal discussions as well as exchange of ideas, contacts, etc.
   • A web site provides information about the members and also acts as reference for previously discussed topics in the electronic mailing list.
   • Social events are regularly organized to establish and maintain personal contacts between the community members.
2. Foster contacts between our community and the community involved in science and technology in Switzerland and to provide an easy access to the vast resources of the US and Switzerland.
• Through our web site, interested Swiss corporations or universities can identify Swiss-List members active in strategic fields and establish informal contacts with them. Their unique experience and insight knowledge is an excellent source of information about local companies, latest technologies, new ideas and the identification of potential partners.
• We also facilitate access for Swiss scientists in the San Francisco Bay Area to opportunities in Switzerland. By providing the possibility of informal exchange with corporations or universities in Switzerland, the Swiss-List helps Swiss nationals return to their home country.
3. Promote the interests of our community to the Swiss public administrations.
   • Close contacts are maintained with the Swiss Embassy and its Consulates in the US.
   • We help identify and alleviate the administrative difficulties linked to returning to Switzerland.
   • We encourage agreements between the Swiss and American administrations for the benefit of Swiss scientists training in the US.
4. Facilitate the integration of Swiss scientists freshly arrived in the US.
   • The Swiss-List web site provides access to resources, list of pointers.
   • An extensive list of recommendations and everyday life "how-to" is available on the web site.
   • Specific questions or request for help can be sent to the mailing list.

Postal Address:

The current members of the Swiss-List committee:

• André, Marc-Olivier < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
  Field of Work:	Responsible for the Who's Who and some alumni activities
  History:	3+ years spent in the Bay Area at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
  Added/Changed: 15-Apr-2002

• Ban, Bela < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	San Jose, CA
  Field of Work:	Computer Science
  Employer:	Fujitsu Network Communications
  History:	5+ years in the US (3 in the Bay Area) - as of end 2002 - Organizes the SwissList talks
  Added/Changed: 30-Oct-2002

• Debes, Eric < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Santa Clara, CA
  Added/Changed: 22-Jun-2002

• Fleiner, Claudio < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	San Jose, Silicon Valley, California
  Field of Work:	Swiss-list Web Page Design and Management, Mailing Lists
  Added/Changed: 20-Jun-2002

• Jost, Hansjürg < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Mountain View, CA
  Field of Work:	Social events, presentations, ...
  Employer:	Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
  History:	nothing
  Added/Changed: 11-Dec-2006

• Löffler-Lejeune, Christoph < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Sunnyvale
  Field of Work:	Social events, presentations, ...
  Added/Changed: 26-Oct-2003

• Masser, Anne < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Santa Clara, CA
  Field of Work:	Editor of Tips and Tricks, Organize get togethers
  Added/Changed: 1-Jun-2003

• Miéville, Laurent < > ^edit

  Field of Work:	Part of the alumni s' team responsible for the alumni section of Swiss-list
  History:	3 years spent in Bay area (Stanford & startup called Conductus)
  Added/Changed: 21-Jun-2002

• Monnat, Jean-Jacques < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Jura, (back to Switzerland)
  Field of Work:	BroadVision sites & Health Care Retail & Subscription's sales
  Employer:	Drugstore
  History:	http://drugstore.com Current project
  Added/Changed: 27-Apr-2007

• Piguet, Laurent < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	St-Prex, Switzerland
  Field of Work:	Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  Added/Changed: 9-Apr-2002

• Rus, Laurent < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Madrid - Spain -
  Field of Work:	Structural Engineering
  Employer:	Ove Arup and Partners S.A.
  History:	Design of Long Span Bridges (Cable Stay, and Suspension Bridges) while in T.Y.Lin Internation San Francisco, California. Design of Buildings and Malls at ARUP in Madrid, Spain
  Added/Changed: 17-Oct-2002

• Serban-von Kaenel, Karin < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Bay Area
  Added/Changed: 19-Aug-2002

• Wullschleger, Stephen < > ^edit

  Region/Address:	Silicon Valley
  Added/Changed: 3-Jul-2002

A brief history

A few of us met at a dinner for Swiss scientists organized in 95 by the Swiss consulate. Having common interests, we kept in touch by emailing and sometime by getting together to have a barbecue or a dinner. Since we were meeting more young Swiss scientists, the number of addresses in the email we were exchanging was growing ever longer. Finally in February 97, Laurent Miéville created a mailing list (thank you Laurent) to help Swiss people in the San Francisco bay area (with a bias toward Swiss post-docs) keep in touch one with the other. In March 97, I (Laurent Vuilleumier) decided to complement the mailing list with a web site. During 97, both the mailing list and the web site grew steadily to become quite representative of the activity of Swiss people in the scientific and technologic field around San Francisco. We are now developing our ties with Swiss scientific and technologic bodies, and hope to be able in 98 to increase our exchanges with Switzerland. The Swiss-List started as, and is still, a private informal initiative by Laurent Miéville and me (Laurent Vuilleumier). We were delighted to be joined and helped by other young Swiss in the Bay area. Our group is as flexible as possible and we try to keep it free from administrative structure.

By now, we grew the site to three regional lists (Eastcoast, San Francisco Bay and San Diego), a list about startups, and, of course, the original swiss-list. The web site has grown considerably and allows now all members and non members to add and edit specific parts of the site.