Michael Oberle, PhD

Head of Global Business Development of Z43 Alliance

Biography:  Dr. Michael Oberle completed an Engineering Diploma in Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1993, and a PhD degree in Microelectronics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in 2002. Michael was co-founder and CEO of Miromico AG (2001 – 2005), a start-up company spun off from the Integrated Systems Laboratory of the ETH Zurich, doing business in R&D of miniaturized medical devices and contract application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design. In 2005, he joined SPEAG and IT'IS to establish and develop the new medical technology division, and, in 2007, he became Managing Director of the newly founded Zurich MedTech AG. Before returning to Z43 in 2016 to lead business development at ZMT, Michael served as CEO of NeMoDevice AG (2012 – 2016), a Zurich-based medical device company that provides innovative solutions for monitoring cerebral blood flow and brain tissue oxygenation in the field of neurointensive medicine.

Lena Kranold, PhD                                                                                  
Postdoctoral researcher for applied medical EM research

Biography:  Dr. Lena Kranold was born in Germany. She received the B.Eng. degree in Technology Management and Marketing from the University of Applied Sciences Kiel, Germany, in 2013 and the M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Information Engineering from the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany, in 2015. She earned the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Canada, in 2020. Lena’s PhD research was about the design of a wearable system for breast health monitoring, including RF radar, antenna and antenna array design, developing a prototype system for breast screening, and conducting clinical trials. Her research interests are in the fields of applied and computational electromagnetics, currently focusing on MR implant safety and compatibility. In 2021, Lena joined the IT’IS Foundation and ETH Zurich as postdoctoral researcher in applied medical EM research. Her current role includes customized research for implant manufacturers as well as investigation of mechanistic models of MR implant safety and compatibility as well as development of next generation MR implant safety testing equipment. Lena served on the Board of Directors of IEEE Montreal Section for five years, as treasurer of the Women in Engineering Affinity Group (2017-2018) and as Vice-Chair of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Montreal Chapter (2019-2022).