Biographie:

Prof. Dr. Robert Riener studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich and the University of Maryland from 1988 to 1993. He received his Dr.-Ing. degree from TUM in 1997. After postdoctoral research at TUM and Politecnico di Milano, he completed his habilitation at TUM in 2003. In the same year, he became professor at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, where he was promoted to full professor in 2010 and 2016, respectively.

Riener develops therapy and assistive devices for people with motor impairments. He has published more than 500 peer-reviewed articles, over 30 book chapters and books, and holds 28 patents. He is the inventor and initiator of the CYBATHLON, president of ICORR, AAAS Leshner Fellow, and Thomas Mann Fellow, and has received more than 30 personal distinctions, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel. Since 2026, he has also served as Distinguished Professor of Robotics at Tohoku University, Sendai.