Konrad Akert, 1919-, neurosurgeon. Moved to the US from Zurich in 1951, where he taught at Johns Hopkins and the University of Wisconsin. While at Wisconsin he played an important part in guiding the university's important collection of mammalian brains – one of the major such collections in the world. In 1961 he returned to Zurich, where he oversaw the establishment of the Institute for Brain Research at the Federal Institute of Technology.

Kaspar (Caspar) Köpfli, 1774-?1854, together with his son Salomon and friend Joseph Suppiger, founded New Switzerland, Illinois in 1831. The town was renamed Highland in 1836. Köpfli, a well-to-do doctor from Sursee, Canton Lucerne, emigrated to the USA in 1831 for the express purpose of founding a settlement. He saw Europe’s problems as being caused by overpopulation, and decided to establish a settlement so that less fortunate Swiss could start a new, more hopeful life.

Hans Ulrich Zellweger, 1909-1990, paediatrician. Born in Lugano, studied medicine at the University of Zurich, graduating in 1934. After further training in Lucerne, he worked for two years (1937-39) with Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene in what is now the West African state of Gabon. He returned to Switzerland and from 1939 worked at the Children's Hospital in Zurich. In 1951 he became professor of paediatrics at the American University Beirut. He immigrated to the US in 1959, to take up a post at the University of Iowa. In 1977 he became head of the regional genetic service of the state of Iowa. He gave his name to Zellweger's syndrome, a rare hereditary disorder which leads to death in the first weeks or months of life.

Heinrich Zimmermann, 1673-c1747, born in Wattenwil, Canton Bern, physician. First emigrated to Pennsylvania around 1698, later returned to Switzerland but came back to America in 1706, settled in Germantown. Moved to Pequea in Lancaster County in 1717. Founder of the Carpenter dynasty.