Prof. Urs Fischer

Bern, Switzerland

President Elect

Prof. Urs Fischer is the Director and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital Bern, Switzerland. He studied in Bern, London, San Francisco and Lomé, and he performed a “Master of Science by Research in Clinical Neurology” at the Stroke Prevention Research University of Oxford. In 2015, he was elected as Professor for Acute Neurology and Stroke at the University of Bern and was co-director of the Clinical Trial Unit at the University of Bern. From August 2021 to May 2024, he was chairing the Department of Neurology in Basel, Switzerland.

Urs Fischer is a clinician scientist, interested in stroke and brain health and he aims to answer clinical relevant questions with randomised controlled trials and large registries. He served as principal investigator for several international multicenter academic trials on the management of patients with ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke, such as the SWIFT DIRECT (The Lancet, PMID: 35810756), ELAN (NEJM, PMID: 37222476) and SWITCH (The Lancet, PMID: 38761811) trials. He is the Co-PI of the DISTAL, TECNO and ICARUS trials and part of the steering committee of the ELASPE, EMINENT-ICH and DO IT trials.

He is actively involved in various National and European Stroke Societies, holding positions such president of the Swiss Neurological Society (SNS) and former Member of the Programme Committee of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN). He was cofounder of the ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School and the Asian Stroke School, and is actively involved in the European Stroke Master Program in Bern, Switzerland.

Urs Fischer has been serving ESO for many years in various positions. He was chairing the ESO young stroke physicians, was former secretary general of ESO and local chair of ESOC 2024 in Basel. He was the recipient of the 2020 ESO Scientific Excellence Award, the Honorary Medal “Gheorghe Marinescu” of the Romanian Society of Neurology in 2021 and the Maupertuis Research Award 2024 of the Swiss Brain League.