Audrey Leuba has been appointed Rector of the University of Geneva for the term April 1, 2024, to July 14, 2028. A dedicated academic and institutional leader, she has contributed to the Faculty of Law, serving as Chair of various faculty committees and Head of the Civil Law Department before becoming the Dean in 2022.
She earned her law degree from the University of Neuchâtel before qualifying as a barrister. She completed a Master’s (LL.M) at Harvard Law School with a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and passed the New York State Bar Exam in 1994. Her doctoral thesis explored gender equality in the division of spousal tasks.
Her academic journey includes positions at the Universities of Neuchâtel and Geneva (DEA Gender Studies), where she advanced research on elder care with SNSF support. Since 2006, she has been a full professor at the University of Geneva, specializing in family law, estate planning, and adult protection.
Beyond academia, she has chaired the Swiss Society of Jurists and served on numerous federal and cantonal bodies, contributing to ethics, family policy, and health law.
Prof. RNDr, Jiří Zima, Csc. has served as Rector of Charles University since February 2026. A professor of analytical chemistry, he has spent his academic career at the Faculty of Science of Charles University, where he previously held a number of leadership positions, including Vice-Dean for Development and Dean from 2016 to 2024.
He was elected Rector by the Academic Senate of Charles University in October 2025 for a four-year term. In his role, he aims to strengthen institutional stability, transparency, and trust, while supporting high-quality education and internationally competitive research.
Throughout his career, Prof. Zima has been actively involved in international academic cooperation and has completed research stays in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Malaysia, and the United States.
Frauke Melchior has been Rector of Heidelberg University since October 2023. She studied chemistry at the University of Marburg and the University of Bristol (UK) and in 1990 earned her doctorate in Marburg on a biochemical topic. As a postdoctoral researcher in the field of molecular cell biology, she first worked at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and from 1992 at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (USA). In 1998 Frauke Melchior started the first research group of her own at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich. Six years later she accepted a professorship for biochemistry in the field of human medicine at the University of Göttingen. In 2008 Frauke Melchior was appointed Professor of Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University. From 2021 to 2023 she was a member of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich, one of the research centres in the Helmholtz Association.
Stéphane Braconnier is Professor in Public Law and President of Paris-Panthéon-Assas University since November 2020.
He holds expertise in several fields of Public Economic law: Public Procurement law, outsourcing of public activities, Public-Private Partnerships, Competition law, and more.
He is the author of numerous publications on these subjects and frequently moderates seminars and training sessions in France and abroad, for example in South America, East Asia, and Africa.
He has also extensive experience in international project management, having served as counsel and as the former Dean of Assas International on Singapore campus.
Nathalie Drach-Temam was elected President of Sorbonne University on 14 December 2021 and re-elected on 15 December 2025. With an academic background in mathematics, Nathalie Drach-Temam has been a professor in computer science at Sorbonne University since 2004. Her area of expertise is processor design, the key to all computer systems, taking into account both hardware and software dimensions.
She has coordinated numerous national and international academic and industrial projects and is currently a member of European and national networks of excellence and experts.
From 2012 to 2016, Nathalie Drach-Temam was Vice President for careers and student life at Pierre and Marie Curie University (which merged to become Sorbonne University in 2018), and later in charge of education and careers from 2016 to 2017. From 2018 to 2021, she was Vice President for research, innovation and open science at Sorbonne University.
Since 5 March 2025, she has also been President of Udice, a national alliance for French research universities.
David Dreyer Lassen has been rector of the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) since March 2025, previously serving as prorector for research. He co-founded and led the Center for Social Data Science (SODAS) at UCPH, and he has chaired various research councils and boards, including at Statistics Denmark.
His research focus has been social data science and political economy, more specifically onpredicting social and economic outcomes using data. He has taught for over 25 years and helped started UCPH’s master’s degree programme in social data science. In addition, Lassen has won significant research funding from European and Danish bodies.
As rector, David Dreyer Lassen aims to enhance UCPH’s international research, education and societal impact as set out in University’s Strategy 2030. He holds a master’s degree(1998), a PhD degree (2002) and is a professor of economics at UCPH.
Marina Brambilla is Professor of German Language and Linguistics at the University of Milan. After obtaining a degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures at IULM University and a PhD in German Language and Literature at the University of Pavia, she joined the University of Milan in 2003 as a researcher. She then became associate professor in 2011, and full professor in 2016.
Her research and teaching interests are conversation analysis, sociolinguistics, languages for specific purposes (politics and institutions, law, economics and business, technical language) and translation studies. Over the years, she has covered a number of roles within the University governance: Rector's Delegate for Internationalisation and the Erasmus programme within the Faculty of Political, Economic and Social Sciences (2012-2013), Rector's Delegate for Student Guidance and Placement Services (2014-2018), and Deputy Rector for the Planning and Organisation of Education, Student and Staff Services (2018-2024).
Since 2019, professor Brambilla has been President of the University of Milan Language Centre (SLAM), which she contributed to creating, as well as of the University Study and Career Guidance Service (COSP), the Teaching and Learning Innovation and Multimedia Technology Centre (CTU), and the Observatory on University Education Incentive Programmes. She is also a member of the Working Group on Education Incentive Programmes for Students with Specific Learning Disorders (SLDs).
Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak graduated from SGH Warsaw School of Economics in 1984. He has been affiliated with the University of Warsaw since 1984. He earned his doctoral degree in Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw and received the title of professor in 2002.
Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak has been holding a variety of leadership roles: Vice-Dean (1999-2006) and Dean of the Faculty of Management (2006–2012, 2016–2020), and Vice-Rector in charge of research and cooperation for four consecutive years. Since 2020, he has been holding the position of Rector of the University of Warsaw.
During his academic career he has been delivering lectures in a number of universities, mainly in France, UK, USA, China, and Korea.
Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak chairs the Academic Sports Association (Akademicki Związek Sportowy, AZS) – one of the biggest sports associations for students in Poland.