PD Dr. Thomas Nussbaumer

Verenum, Zürich

Thomas Nussbaumer, born 1960 in Zurich, studied Mechanical Engineering and Process Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich from 1979 to 1984. He then held various positions in industry in the USA (Honeycomb), Japan (Tsubakimoto) and Switzerland (Ateliers de Construction Vevey, Swissair Technik Kloten, Dow Chemical Horgen).
From 1985 to 1986 he was Scientific Associate in Process Engineering at the ETH Zurich. During his period as Scientific Associate in Energy Engineering at the ETH Zurich from 1986 to 1989 he worked on his doctoral thesis concerning “Formation of pollutants in combustion processes”.

In 1989, he founded the company Verenum, which focused on research and development, op-timization of practice, consultancy, strategy development and cost-efficiency analyses. Since 1989 he has been head of the Biomass Research Group at the ETH Zurich and Delegate to the International Energy Agency (IEA) for “Biomass Combustion”.

Since 1990, Thomas Nussbaumer has a lecturer at the ETH Zurich. He founded and led the Wood Energy Symposium. He teaches at Universities of Applied Science on their postgraduate courses of study, is a member of the Board and Executive Committee of “Wood Energy Switzerland”, a member of Scientific Committees of the international conferences “Developments in Thermochemical Biomass Conversion” and “Biomass for Energy and Industry” and also a reviewer for journals (including Fuel, Energy&Fuel, Biomass&Bioenergy, Atm. Environm.). In 1995 he won the M.U.T. environment prize for processes to reduce pollutants and increase efficiency. In 1997 he habilitated at the ETH Zurich for “Thermochemical processes for the use of biomass”.

Since 2003, Thomas Nussbaumer has been a representative of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) for measures to reduce emissions in Chile. Since 2006, he has lectured on “Wood energy and environment” for the Bioenergy Virtual University in the framework of the EU SOCRATES programme and an expert for the Climate Cent Foundation.