Prof. em. Dr. Hans Flückiger

Hans Flückiger was Full Professor for spatial development at the Institute of National, Regional and Local Planning at the ETH Zurich from 1997 to 2001. He retired in October 2001.

Prof. Flückiger was born in 1939 and after several years of practical experience in industry, he studied economics at the University of Bern. There he also worked as an assistant and completed his doctorate. He held various positions thereafter, one of them in the Economic Secretariat of the Swiss Trade Association. As an expert in the Federal Department of National Economic Affairs, he defined the overall economic development concept for mountainous regions. In 1977 he was appointed Assistant Director of the Federal Office for Regional Planning. In 1990 he headed this office, which also supervises official surveys. Under his management, regional planning assumed an increasingly important role in carrying out and coordinating federal responsibilities pertaining to a coherent and sustainable regional planning policy.

In 1991 he was named Honorary Professor at the University of Berne and corresponding member of the german academy for regional research and regional planning in Hannover.