Professor Urs Luterbacher has been Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies since 1973. He has done work on problems of international conflict and cooperation and international environmental problems using formal models and game theory.

He is also a member of ProClim the Forum for Climate and Global Change of the Swiss Academy of Sciences and of the Consultative Organ on Climate Change, a committee set up by the Swiss Academy of Sciences to advise the Swiss government on climate change.

He is currently involved in an international research project concerned with the peaceful allocation and distribution of fresh water resources in the Middle East.