Niels Kuster

Kuster grew up in Olten, in the Swiss Canton of Solothurn, where he attended elementary and middle school. After graduating from Gymnasium with the "Matura Type C" (concentration in mathematics and physical sciences) diploma, he studied at the ETH Zurich and graduated in 1984 with a degree in electrical engineering. Starting in 1985, he pursued doctoral work in the Laboratory for Field Theory and Microwave Technology (IFH) at the ETH Zurich under the direction of Heinrich Baggenstos, during which time he was a teaching and research assistant. He defended his doctoral dissertation, entitled "Dosimetric assessment of EM sources near biological bodies by computer simulations",{{Cite thesis |title=Research Collection, Doctoral Thesis |url=https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/140687 |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=ETH Zurich|year=1992 |doi=10.3929/ethz-a-000643952 |last1=Kuster |first1=Niels |hdl=20.500.11850/140687 |type=Doctoral Thesis}} in 1992.

During his post-doctoral studies at IFH in 1992, Prof. Kuster also worked at the Electromagnetics Laboratory of Motorola Inc in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1993, Kuster was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET) at the ETH Zurich. Kuster co-founded Schmid and Partners Engineering AG (SPEAG) in December 1994 as a spin-off company of the ETH-Zurich, together with Thomas Schmid, Kurt Schmid, Martin Schmid, Oliver Egger, and Klaus Meier, with the main objective to further develop and commercialize the Dosimetric Assessment SYstem (DASY), the first electromagnetic near-field scanner optimized for testing the compliance of mobile communications devices with safety limits. In 1998, he was a visiting professor and lecturer at the Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan. In 1999, he founded the Swiss non-profit Foundation for Research on Information Technology in Society (IT'IS)[https://itis.swiss/who-we-are/foundation-board/foundation-board/niels-kuster/ Niels Kuster.] In: itis.swiss, retrieved 30 June 2022. and relocated his research group there to be able to react more flexibly to research problems concerning human exposure to electromagnetic radiation. Kuster founded ZMT Zurich MedTech AG (ZMT) in 2006 as a spin-off company of the ETH-Zurich and the IT'IS Foundation. Between 2000 and 2021, he has been able to acquire more than CHF 100 million in 3rd-party funding.{{Cite web |title=2021 Annual Report |url=https://itis.swiss/assets/Downloads/Annual-Reports/220329_ITIS_AR_2021_single_final_web.pdf |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=IT'IS Foundation}} He was an adjunct professor at the ETH Zurich from 2001 to 2022 and headed the BioElectromagnetics research group of the ETH's Laboratory for Integrated Systems. His main achievements are in the areas of measurement and simulation methods in the electromagnetic near field,{{cite web |last= |date= |year= |title=EM Technology |url=https://itis.swiss/emf-research/em-technology/overview/ |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=IT'IS Foundation |publisher= |pages= |language= |format= |quote=}} safety aspects of wireless communications and magnetic resonance imaging,{{Cite web |title=EM Exposure Assessment |url=https://itis.swiss/emf-research/em-exposure-assessments/overview/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=IT'IS Foundation}} virtual human{{cite web |last= |date= |year= |title=Virtual Population |url=https://itis.swiss/virtual-population/ |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=IT'IS Foundation |publisher= |pages= |language= |format= |quote=}} and animal models{{cite web |last= |date= |year= |title=Animal Models |url=https://itis.swiss/virtual-population/animal-models/animals/ |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=IT'IS Foundation |publisher= |pages= |language= |format= |quote=}} for investigations of anatomy-dependent interactions and optimization of therapies via computer simulation (e.g., in silico clinical trials{{Cite web |title=ViP: In Silico Clinical Tests and Trials The Future Today |url=https://itis.swiss/assets/Downloads/Flyer/1809-virtual-population-web.pdf |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=IT'IS Foundation}} and neurostimulation{{cite web |last= |date= |year= |title=Neuronal Stimulation |url=https://itis.swiss/customized-research/computational-life-sciences/neuronal-stimulation/ |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=IT'IS Foundation |publisher= |pages= |language= |format= |quote=}}).

Prof. Kuster has been involved in the founding of several start-up companies:

• 1994: Schmid & Partner Engineering AG (SPEAG) together with Thomas Schmid, Kurt Schmid, Martin Schmid, Oliver Egger, and Klaus Meier
• 1999: MaxWave AG, co-founder
• 2006: ZMT Zurich MedTech AG, co-founder with the IT'IS team for medical research
• 2011: Thessaloniki Software Solutions S.A. (THESS), co-founder
• 2011: BNNSPEAG, a joint venture between SPEAG and the Indian company BNN Communication Engineers
• 2011: SCALK, a joint venture between SPEAG and the South Korean company Dymstec Co., Ltd
• 2019: TI Solutions AG, a joint venture to foster temporal interference (TI) research

• Consultant to government agencies on safety issues related to wireless devices{{Cite web |title=KUSTER Niels |url=https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/gsw/201406/Pages/bios/KUSTERNiels.aspx |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=International Telecommunication Union (ITU)}}
• Member of professional societies such as the Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS), the European Society of Hyperthermic Oncology (ESHO), the Society for Thermal Medicine (STM), the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), and the Swiss Society for Neuroscience (SSN).
• Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility
• Participation in international standards committees, including the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Technical Committee (TC) 106,{{Cite web |title=TC 106 |url=https://www.iec.ch/ords/f?p=103:14:703740586069758::::FSP_ORG_ID,FSP_LANG_ID:21509,25 |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=International Electrotechnical Commission}} TC 61, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) TS 10974:2018{{Cite web |title=ISO/TS 10974:2018 Assessment of the safety of magnetic resonance imaging for patients with an active implantable medical device |url=https://www.iso.org/standard/65055.html |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=International Organization for Standardization}}

• 2011: IEEE Fellow: Laudatio: For contributions to the area of near-field exposures and dosimetry for radiofrequency fields in biomedical research{{Cite web |title=IEEE Fellows Directory: Niels Kuster |url=https://services27.ieee.org/fellowsdirectory/getdetailprofile.html?custNum=vl%2FfT1YPMb6PeUjxIv%2BNyQ%3D%3D&bccaptions=Search%20Results&bclocations=%2Ffellowsdirectory%2Fkeywordsearch.html%3Fkeyword%3Dkuster |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=IEEE}}
• 2012: d'Arsonval Award, the highest award of the Bioelectromagnetics Society{{Cite web |title=The Newest d'Arsonval Award Winner is ... Niels Kuster! |url=https://www.bems.org/node/6267 |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=The Bioelectromagnetics Society}}
• 2014: Institute of Electronics, Information, and Communication Engineers (IEICE) Senior Member{{Cite web |title=New Senior Member 2014 |url=https://www.ieice.org/eng/about_ieice/senior/senior_member14.html |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{google scholar id|O5_DVpYAAAAJ}}
• [https://speag.swiss/ Schmid & Partner Engineering AG] homepage
• [https://zmt.swiss/ ZMT Zurich MedTech AG] homepage
• [https://temporalinterference.com/ TI Solutions AG] homepage

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Category:1957 births

Category:Living people

Category:Swiss electrical engineers

Category:Academic staff of ETH Zurich