Chris Easthope Awai
Chris Awai's research models human health across aging and disease, using modern technologies to capture behavioural, biomechanical, and physiological data at scale, and translating those data into decision support and lightweight interventions for predictive, precision healthcare. As Director of DART@LLUI, he has developed three research axes: perturbation-based training for fall prevention, real-time biofeedback for motor adaptation and learning, and large-scale data systems for multimodal rehabilitation trajectory prediction.
Chris Awai received a dual PhD in health sciences and human performance from the University of Sydney and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in 2014. He has held postdoctoral appointments at University Hospital Balgrist, the University of Zurich, and ETH Zurich, and most recently served as Chief Scientific Officer of the Lake Lucerne Institute. He holds a senior adjunct position at Zhejiang University and is a visiting fellow at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Auckland.
He has co-authored 100+ peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, supervised over 100 MSc thesis and internship projects, and developed multiple award-winning technologies now in international clinical-research use.
Chris Awai holds editorial roles at established digital health and biomedical engineering journals and is a core member of societies in these fields. He is a frequent organiser of scientific events and public research communications, with work featured by international print and broadcast media.
In 2026, Chris Awai was awarded his habilitation in Biomedical Engineering from ETH Zurich and joins ETH D-HEST as Privatdozent starting August 2026. He teaches across European institutions and (co-)leads multiple lecture series at ETH Zurich. He is executive lead of the education pillar of SwissNeuroRehab, in collaboration with RESC, developing an equitable learning landscape for the next generation of healthcare professionals.