Jakob Schwiedrzik (*1986) completed his degree in mechanical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology in 2010. He then pursued his doctorate under Philippe Zysset at the University of Bern on the topic of investigating the strength of bones on the microscale using experimental and numerical methods, graduating summa cum laude in 2014. He joined Empa as a postdoc in the Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures lab in Thun headed by Johann Michler. He was promoted to scientist in 2017 and was awarded an Ambizione Grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in the same year. In 2021, he became group leader for Architectured Materials.

Jakob Schwiedrzik will take over as head of Empa's High-Performance Ceramics lab as of 1 August. In addition to his scientific work at Empa, he is also a lecturer at ETH Zurich, EPFL and the University of Bern. He is married and has two children aged eight and six.