Architect Renata von Tscharner discusses how women in Switzerland got the vote, the importance of swimming in rivers, and learning to play the accordion.  Renata’s fascinating life was shaped by the events she witnessed in Paris in May 1968, when a student revolt became a general strike that ground the French economy to a halt. She speaks with host Susan Kish about campaigning to get women the vote in Switzerland, her architecture experiences at ETH Zurich and as an urban planner in London...

Synthetic biologist and ETH Alumna Sonja Billerbeck discusses microbiology, mushrooms, and metabolisms – as well as the threat and promise of AI in research. From discovering that microbes breathe oxygen and eat sugar, Sonja became enthralled in the world of microorganisms and understanding their applications in agriculture and healthcare. Through stints at ETH Zurich and Columbia University, Sonja’s interest in engineering microbiology has led her to her own lab at the University of...

Vincent Bédat thinks it’s time to take robotics to the next level. After successful applications in industrial and manufacturing settings, robots need to find a place in our homes. Vincent’s journey has taken him from Switzerland to Germany and now the US. He studied Mechanical Engineering at ETH Zurich, and went on to do an MBA at MIT. About moving back to Europe, Vincent says he’ll stay in California as long as it remains the place where he thinks he can make the biggest changes, work on...

Rasmus Rothe is all about AI. Co-founder and CTO of Berlin-based company Merantix, he builds and scales AI ventures, and enables an AI co-working community at the Merantix AI Campus. Rasmus Rothe studied Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Oxford, Princeton and ETH Zurich. He is the co-founder and CTO of Merantix, “the world's first artificial intelligence platform dedicated to researching, building and investing in AI companies”. The company works on AI-powered ideas to...

According to Felix Graf, media was the first one to be hit by the internet, so it will be the first one to be hit by AI. At the same time, quality journalism has never been more important. Felix Graf changed career direction several times: from music to physics, consulting to telecom, then energy and media. But one thing stood him in good stead throughout his journey that eventually led him to the helm of NZZ: his ETH Zurich experience. It was there he says he learned how to learn, how to be...

While Maya Bundt originally set out to study biology and geoscience, her career led her to become an expert in cybersecurity after spending 20 years in reinsurance. Maya Bundt is a Member of the Board of several companies and organisations, including the Cyber Peace Institute. She also chairs the Cyber Resilience Chapter at the Swiss Risk Association, and she is member of the Cybersecurity Commission of digitalswitzerland. Maya explains how her research took her to Zurich, and we hear about...

Hans Gut’s career took him all over the world and through some difficult moments, before he dedicated himself to the Careum Foundation in Zurich. Studying at mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich at a time before computers where ubiquitous, Hans Gut explains you had to queue to submit your punch cards into a machine. While he was at ETH, Hans completed two internships that both led him to future employers. His global business career eventually led him to become the President of the Careum...

Joe Paradiso’s time at ETH Zurich was a period that helped him grow as a researcher, and develop a deep appreciation for Europe – as well Swiss food!  Joe’s extraordinary and prolific career has taken him from high energy physics to spacecraft control systems, past wearables, sensors and synthesizers. He is currently the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor in Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab. In this episode, we learn about what happened when Joe came to Zurich having been warned...

After studying at ETH Zurich, Ogi Stanovcic connected the dots between cybersecurity and videoconferencing. And he certainly didn’t think he would end up staying in the same company for 25 years. When Ogi was recommended to leave former Yugoslavia and go study at ETH Zurich, he didn’t have Switzerland on his radar. But when he was here, he started to love it so much it was clear he was going to stay. Literally everything in his life today is still very closely connected to ETH: his...

ETH alumna Mulan Sun says being an architect is a job where you must use all your sensitivity to identify problems, and all your creativity to solve them. Born and raised in China, Mulan Sun moved to Switzerland, learned German and completed her studies in architecture at ETH Zurich. She is the President of the Swiss Chinese Chamber of Architects and Artists. She's also the founder of an architectural and interior design firm based in Zurich, and a lecturer at the Lucerne University of...

Alumni and former decathlete Luca Di Tizio is a recent graduate from ETH Zurich, now working for deep tech startup Microcaps, an ETH spinoff company. Luca Di Tizio is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from ETH Zurich, with a focus on Biomedical Engineering. He currently works on bringing Swiss precision to the world of microencapsulation with Microcaps AG. When he was still a student, he participated in Elon Musk's Hyperloop Pod Competition for two consecutive years. Swissloop placed second...

Strategist Julie Cantalou recently transitioned to the world of politics. What are her ambitions as a politician, and how can ETH Zurich contribute to policymaking? Julie Cantalou has many family ties to ETH Zurich, in addition to working in the Office of the President as a strategist. Since then, her passion for politics has led her to become involved in it full-time with the Swiss Green Liberal Party. Julie believes that ETH Zurich has a key role to play at the nexus of science and policy....

An expert on HR, leadership and people issues, Shanthi Flynn was a scientist before she became a global leader in the field of human resources. How did she find her talent for dealing with people and achieve her illustrious career? Shanthi Flynn joined the human resources field soon after her studies and developed businesses in the retail, manufacturing, healthcare and services sectors around the world. With a focus on organization and people issues, she has unique insights into the...

Patrick Anquetil is an innovator and entrepreneur who studied mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich. His third and current company to date, Portal Instruments, builds needle-free injectors. Patrick grew up in Paris, with a view of the Eiffel Tower from his kitchen window. But he always knew he wanted to study abroad. He decided to study mechanical engineering at ETH because he found the combination of theory and practice on offer there especially appealing. For his master's thesis, Patrick...

George Szpiro is an Israeli-Swiss applied mathematician and journalist who made a name for himself as the author of popular mathematical essays and books. George studied mathematics and physics at ETH Zurich, business administration at Stanford University, and received his PhD in mathematical economics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1984. Along the way, he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey in Zurich, Munich, and London. He became the Israel correspondent for the Neue...

Anette Freytag, a Landscape Historian currently at Rutgers University and formerly with ETH Zurich, explains why landscape architecture is not only a discipline but an attitude and a way of life. Anette Freytag combines art and gardens in her study of Landscape Architecture, Theory, History, and Design, whilst seeking ways to give back to the local community. An example is the March to Rutgers Gardens by the AIR Collaborative, of which we play a clip in the episode. A choreographed 2-mile...

Felix Seidel is a Data Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Caltech. He shares with us how ETH Zurich influenced him, and continues to be important for him today. You could say that ETH Zurich is the thread red connecting the dots in Felix Seidel’s career. A Data Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) at Caltech in California, Felix’ story begins with his passion for flying. Tune in to find out how his dream career in aviation turned into a scientific one, for which...

Gisbert Schneider – winner of the Ernst Schering Price 2022 – worked in various places before his professional path led him to ETH, where he now heads the Singapore-ETH Centre. On the occasion of the ETH Circle Annual Meeting, we bring you a special live recording of the We Are ETH Podcast. It features Gisbert Schneider, the Director of the Singapore-ETH Centre and Full Professor of Computer-Assisted Drug Design, in conversation with Susan, with our ETH Circle Members as the audience. They...

It was when Margherita Fontana left ETH Zurich that she realized it had given her a unique value proposition, which was solid baggage to take with her to the corporate world. Our 6th episode is all about ETH alumna and chemist Margherita Fontana of Dow Chemicals. A scientist at heart, she discusses with host Susan how resilience comes from learning how to cope with uncertainty, and how she came to drive change because she didn’t feel included. An advocate for women in STEM, she explains how...

Philippe Kahn, a serial technology innovator, and entrepreneur, who studied mathematics at ETH Zurich, is credited with creating the first camera phone solution. In this episode, Susan talks to Philippe Kahn, founder of four successful technology companies, with a focus on his most recent passion: sleep. In addition to talking about the content of his work, Philippe shares his work ethic, which explains why he still practices playing the flute daily. He also connects the dots for us between...

Switzerland's former ambassador to the US Martin Dahinden made many exciting encounters during his diplomatic career, and ETH Zurich played a key role throughout. In this episode, Susan talks to Swiss diplomat Martin Dahinden. Having studied economics, Martin held various positions in the diplomatic service, including with Swiss Missions to the UN and NATO. Before becoming the Swiss Ambassador to the US in 2014, he was Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. He is an...

It seems like Martin was destined to go to ETH Zurich. From an early age, he showed interest in disassembling electrical objects with a lack of propensity for assembling them again, which pointed the way towards learning how to do that – with a little nudge from a friendly ETH faculty in the neighborhood. From then on, he kept a close relationship with the institution, which still continues to this day. Martin takes us through this journey, starting with his studies in Electrical Engineering,...

Jennifer’s story is one of coming full circle. Originally from Detroit and having recently moved back there, Jennifer explains how her serendipitous path and global living experiences built on each other: From Detroit to Colorado to study anthropology; to Senegal and Ghana in order to see this work on the ground; to New York and living through 9/11, creating a need to focus on understanding terrorism and crisis, which took her to California for further studies; to Switzerland in order to go...

ETH Zurich was not Jeannine's first choice for a place of study, but she made the switch because she was looking for more opportunities to apply her creative side. “At ETH, you learn that it is entirely up to you what you want to make out of your university experience. ETH gives you a lot of freedom in how you can achieve your goals.” This was exactly the foundation she needed, as it gave her the freedom to develop both her skills and personality. "We are not machines. Students are all...

We Are ETH is a podcast series featuring stories from Alumni of ETH Zurich around the globe. Hosted by ETH Circle Member and Entrepreneur Susan Kish, We Are ETH brings you conversations with the people who have taken their ETH experience out into the world and turned it into a company, a career, and a way of life.