Dr. Willibald Ruch

Professor Willibald Ruch, Senior Scientist, is currently chair of the section of personality and assessment at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. He received his PhD from the University of Graz, Austria and later worked at different universities in Germany, the UK and Switzerland. Between 1992 and 1998 he held a Heisenberg-fellowship awarded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). He has taught various courses on personality and assessment at different universities and he has authored about 230 journal articles and book chapters and co-edited and co-written five books. Willibald is co-editing or on the editorial board of several journals (including Journal of Individual Differences, Journal of Research in Personality, Journal of Positive Psychology), and co-editor of two book series. Currently he is working on positive psychology traits (e.g., character strengths and virtues; orientations to happiness, cheerfulness, humor) in adults and children/adolescents and their role in contributing to the good life. He is a founder member of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and president of the Swiss Positive Psychology Association (SWIPPA).