Professor Tanja Manser is Director of the School of Applied Psychology at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). She is a leading expert in Europe on team performance in healthcare and its relationship to patient safety and clinician well-being.

She received a PhD in Psychology form University of Zurich in 2002. From 2003-2005 she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Anesthesia, School of Medicine, Stanford University, and at the Patient Simulation Center of Innovation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, USA. From 2005-2009 she headed a research group on Human Performance and Safety in Complex Work Environments at the Center for Organizational and Occupational Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. From 2009-2010 she held a Marie Curie Fellowship (Industrial Psychology Research Centre, Aberdeen University, UK), and from 2010-2014 a Research professorship funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Departement de Psychologie, Université de Fribourg, Switzerland). From 2014-2017 she was Professor for Patient Safety and Director of the Institute for Patient Safety at the University Hospital Bonn, Germany.

In 2015 she received the German Health Services Research Award. She holds leadership roles in various professional associations – nationally and internationally. She has been an advisor to the Swiss Nuclear Safety Commission from 2008-2012 and is a member of the ENSI Board (the strategic governing body and internal supervisory organ of the Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate in Switzerland) since 2019. She has published widely in the field of human factors and health care research and has lead multiple research and training programs on patient safety.