Rudolf Baumgartner

Rudolf Baumgartner has been co-director of studies at NADEL, a post-graduate study program for developing countries since 1990. In 1994 he was given the title of Professor.

He was born 1942. He has studied economics at the University of Zurich, where he obtained his doctoral degree for a dissertation analysing the socio-economic change and the perspectives for sustainable development of a Sherpa community in the Nepalese Himalayas. The thesis was under the care of Prof. Dr. Heidi Schelbert, University of Zürich, and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Stolper at Michigan University, Ann Arbor.

Before joining ETH Zurich, Rudolf Baumgartner has assumed management functions in the private sector and worked several years as advisor to development organisations. From 1986-90 he was co-ordinator for the Swiss development co-operation in South India.

The current focus of his teaching is on development of program strategies for North-South co-operation and the cycle of program planning and implementation in different cultural, social and economic contexts of development. He is co-ordinating a long-term interdisciplinary research project with partner institutions in India, investigating "Rural Livelihood Systems and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources".