Barbara Schaffner

Barbara Schaffner (born 28 July 1968) is a Swiss politician, energy expert, and physicist. She is a member of the National Council for the Green Liberal Party for the canton of Zurich and mayor of Otelfingen.

Biography Barbara Schaffner grew up in in the canton of Aargau. In 1988 she lived as an exchange student on a farm in Wyoming, USA. After studying physics and receiving a doctorate in medical physics at ETH Zürich and the PPaul Scherrer Institute, she completed a postdoc at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Japan. From 2000 to 2008 she worked at Varian Medical Systems as a specialist in proton therapy and researched algorithms in radiotherapy She has two children with her long-term partner, Paul Eggimann.

Political career Schaffner was elected to the Cantonal Council of Zurich for the Dielsdorf district in 2011. She was a member of the Committee for Transport, Energy and the Environment. From 2011 to 2013, she was also a member of the Committee for Planning and Construction. In the Cantonal Council, she campaigned primarily for renewable energies and public transport. She also attracted attention with a successful initiative against the disappearance of native crayfish species.

In July 2018, the voters of Otelfingen elected Schaffner as mayor. In 2019, she was one of the driving forces with the committee "No to the harmful water law" that defeated the new water law in the canton of Zurich in a referendum, arguing primarily with environmental and flood protection as well as the additional bureaucratic burden for municipalities. In the GLP, she heads the national energy working group and is president of the GLP Unteres Furttal. In the parliamentary elections on 20 October 2019, Schaffner was elected to the National Council for the Green Liberals. She therefore resigned from the Cantonal Council in November 2019. In the National Council, she is (as of August 2024) in the , in the Delegation for Relations with the Parliament of the Principality of Liechtenstein and deputy in the Parliamentary IT Group (PIT).

Publications