Daniel Brélaz (born 4 January 1950, in Lausanne) is a Swiss mathematician and politician, member of the

Green Party of Switzerland The Green Party of Switzerland (; ; ; ) is a green political party in Switzerland. It is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council. History The first ...

and 93th mayor of Lausanne between 2001 and 2016. In 1979, Daniel Brélaz became the first

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

representative elected to sit in a national parliament.

Biography

Brélaz received a degree in mathematics from

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

(EPFL) in 1975, and afterwards taught mathematics. He is responsible for a well-known approximation algorithm for graph colouring. In 1975, he joined the Group for the Protection of the Environment in Lausanne. In 1978 he was one of the first environmentalists elected to parliament, in the Grand Council of

Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...

, and re-elected in 1982–1983. From 1979 to 1989, Brélaz was the first environmentalist elected to sit in a national parliament, in the

National Council of Switzerland The National Council (; ; ; ) is a house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, representing the people. The other house, Council of States, represents the states, preventing more populous parts of the country overpowering the rest. As the p ...

. In 1989, he was elected to the City Council of Lausanne where he was responsible for industrial services. On 25 November 2001, he became the trustee responsible for finance, and was re-elected in the first round of Vaud elections on 12 March 2006. In 2007, he was elected again to the National Council. He resigned his seat on the Grand Council of Vaud but remained a trustee in Lausanne, and was criticized for maintaining this dual mandate. On 13 March 2011, he was re-elected in the first round of the Lausanne municipal elections with 11,503 votes in his favour. Brélaz was elected in

2015 Swiss federal election Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 18 October 2015 for the National Council and the first round of elections to the Council of States, with runoff elections to the Council of States being held in various cantons until 22 November. R ...

and re-elected in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. A month after his election, he announced that he would retire from the National Council in 2022. His term officially ended on 17 February 2022 and was succeeded by Raphaël Mahaim. Brélaz is vice-president of the Administrative Council for Public Transportation in the Region of Lausanne.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brelaz, Daniel Swiss mathematicians Green Party of Switzerland politicians Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2019–2023 Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2007–2011 People from Lausanne Mayors of Lausanne 1950 births Living people École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne alumni