Gerhard Schmitt is professor emeritus of Information Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), founding director of the Singapore–ETH Centre. He holds degrees of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and a master of architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.

Gerhard’s research focuses on urban metabolism with the associated emissions, smart cities and linking Big Data with urban design, urban models, simulation and visualization. He and his team developed and taught the first massive open online courses on future cities and liveable cities.

From 1998 to 2008 Gerhard served as vice president for planning and logistics and member of the board of ETH Zurich. He directed the development of ETH’s strategy and planning in cooperation with 16 scientific departments. From 1984 to 1988 he conducted CAAD research and teaching at Carnegie Mellon University. He joined ETH Zurich in 1988. Gerhard was visiting professor at Harvard GSD, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the Technical University of Denmark and at the Technical University of Delft. From 2004 to 2007 he chaired the visiting committee of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

Gerhard initiated and conceptualized the sustainable ETH Science City Campus in Zurich. For this work he received the 2010 European Culture of Science award.