John Botsis obtained his diplôme in civil engineering at the University of Patras, Greece in 1979.  He continued his education at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland Ohio/USA, where he received his MS and Ph.D. 1984. After two years at the research centre for national defence in Athens he was nominated assistant professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, associate in 1991 and full professor in 1995. In 1996, he was nominated professor of solids and structural mechanics at the EPFL. His activities cover experimental mechanics, fracture and fatigue of advanced materials including composites and biomaterials using novel experimental techniques, numerical methods and micromechanics. He has co-authored more than 150 journal papers, several book chapter and two textbooks. His research has been funded from the Swiss National Science Foundation, State Secretariat for Education and Research, Swiss commission for technology and innovation, EU and Swiss industry.