Our Team

Jürgen Maurer

Jürgen Maurer is a full professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) of the University of Lausanne since January 2011 and a founding member of the Lausanne Center for Health Economics, Behavior, and Policy (LCHE). He has international experience and conducts multidisciplinary research in the fields of economics and health economics, demography, and public health. He has published numerous scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as The Economic Journal, Journal of Health Economics, Demography, American Journal of Public Health, JAMA Internal Medicine and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Sarah Vilpert

Sarah Vilpert is a postdoc at the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) of the University of Lausanne. She has a background in sociology, demography, and public health, and her research interests focus on health and healthcare service challenges related to older age. She is currently leading an SNSF-funded research project on end-of-life care planning in older adults in Switzerland, where she is exploring the factors related to the completion of advance directives.

Clément Meier

Clément Meier is a junior SNSF researcher at the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) from the University of Lausanne and a PhD candidate in public health at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne. His research interests are in public health; his PhD is on knowledge and health literacy related to end-of-life issues and their association with end-of-life care planning in the older population living in Switzerland. 

Carmen Borrat-Besson

Carmen Borrat-Besson is a senior researcher at the Swiss Center of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS). She was trained in psychology, sociology, and health communication sciences at Fribourg, Heidelberg, and Lugano. She is responsible at FORS for implementing the Swiss part of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement Study (SHARE). Her research activities currently focus on end-of-life decisions, end-of-life preferences, and advanced care planning.

Maud Wieczorek

Maud Wieczorek is an epidemiologist by training. She is currently a senior SNSF researcher at the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES. 
Taking advantage of the SHARE dataset, her research focuses on the longitudinal course of end-of-life preferences and on the identification of social and health determinants of the adoption of advance directives in older adults living in Switzerland. 

Robert Reinecke

Robert Reinecke is a neuroscientist and cognitive psychologist by training, with specialisation in psycho- and neurolinguistics. After his PhD from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France), he joined the SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe) team in Switzerland. His current research focuses on the cognitive aspects of ageing taking a populational perspective into account.

Gian Domenico Borasio

Gian Domenico Borasio, MD, neurologist and palliative care specialist, is professor and chair in Palliative Medicine at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and the University of Lausanne. His research interests include: meaning in life, spirituality and quality of life in palliative care, palliative care in neurological disorders, advance directives and end-of-life decisions in adult and pediatric palliative care.

Ralf J. Jox

Ralf J. Jox, MD, PhD, is a trained philosopher, neurologist, and palliative care specialist. He is a full professor of medical ethics and geriatric palliative care at the University of Lausanne, Faculty of Biology and Medicine. At Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), he directs the Institute of Humanities in Medicine (IHM) and the Clinical Ethics Unit. His research focuses on end-of-life ethics, advance care planning (ACP), and clinical ethics consultation. Dr. Jox is vice president of ACP-Swiss, the national association for ACP, and is involved in regional ACP implementation in the Canton of Vaud.

Valérie-Anne Ryser

Valérie-Anne Ryser holds a PhD in social sciences from the University of Lausanne. Since 2008 she works at FORS for the Swiss Household Panel (SHP). For the SHP, she is involved in data control and data cleaning activities for the yearly survey and organizes the biennial SHP methodological workshops. Adopting a life course perspective, Valérie-Anne Ryser’s research interests focus on family transitions, processes of regulations, and well-being in old and very old age.

Giuliano Pigazzini

Giuliano Pigazzini is currently enrolled in a Master of Science in Economics at the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) of the University of Lausanne and has a background in hospitality. His studies focus on quantitative economics. He is a research assistant in the Swiss SHARE team, where he collaborates on the end-of-life care planning project.