Portraits

She looks for change in her research: Clara Zemp is Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Neuchâtel – and seeks dialogue across disciplines. At the Swiss Young Academy, she finds space to rethink science and reflect on her social role as a scientist.

At the meeting of the Young Academies of Europe in Bern, Yves Flückiger, President of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, and Lucas Müller, former speaker of the Swiss Young Academy, talk about science diplomacy, uncertain career paths and the question of how the scientific system can be networked across Europe and made fit for the future.

Environmental epidemiologist Marloes Eeftens – a member of the Swiss Young Academy – has proved for the first time that pollen allergies have a greater impact on health than was previously assumed. In this portrait, she explains what drives her and why pollen should become a public health issue.

Chemist Jovana V. Milić developed an early interest in multiple disciplines and has consistently connected them throughout her career. As a scientist, she advocates for greater interdisciplinarity and is actively involved in the Swiss Young Academy, particularly in science policy and diplomacy.

Anna Elsner, a literary scholar and a member of the Swiss Young Academy, explores in books, films and blogs how people talk about dying. Her insights open up new perspectives, which are also relevant to medicine.

His life is characterized by variety, while his academic career is driven by curiosity and interest. Servan Grüninger, a founding member of the Swiss Young Academy and co-founder of the think tank “Reatch”, could perhaps be described as an intellectual nomad. He is currently working on his dissertation in Vienna.

On Instagram, he takes his followers back to long-gone times: Gino Caspari, an archaeologist and member of the Young Academy. His life gives the impression of being one big adventure. The price he pays: financial insecurity.

She won’t be fobbed off with light fare: when she was a teenager, Elisa Araldi wanted to read the scientific journal “nature” - even though she hardly understood what she was reading. Today, she’s an assistant professor at the University of Parma, where she heads a research group for data-based systems medicine. What she particularly likes about the Swiss Young Academy is the dialogue and support from people who are “in the same boat”.

Sandra Bärnreuther - a medical anthropologist – studied in Münster, Heidelberg, New York and New Delhi, conducted research in the laboratories of large urban hospitals in India, investigated how digital change affects medical care in rural regions of West Bengal and currently teaches at the University of Lucerne. She believes it is important to have a “comparative perspective” – including for the Swiss Young Academy, of which she is a founding member.

With her research, Lauren Clack makes a practical contribution to the improvement of public health. She currently leads the Implementation Science in Health Care research group at the University of Zurich and is in the Swiss Young Academy, whose members she considers “goal-getters” who are collectively shaping the future of the academic landscape

Anna Jobin’s path to a career in the sciences has not been a straight one. In the past, she has worked for the former airline Swissair, had a stint in the film industry, and studied sociology, economics, and informatics. She now researches both artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation governance. Jobin is also one of the founding members of the Swiss Young Academy, an organisation she believes truly embodies diversity and innovation.

With a PhD in plasma physics, his career path was already mapped out. But he was to take a different path, the one that leads to network science. Alexandre Bovet, Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics, University of Zurich, is an expert in dynamic community detection. His favourite playground? Social media and their impact on society. He joined the Swiss Young Academy in 2020. Being sensitive to inequality issues, he has joined a project focusing on precarious working conditions in the Swiss academic world.

In his day-to-day work as a bioinformatician, he has a very subject-specific view of current social challenges, particularly in the health sector. That's why it's all the more important for him to get involved with other urgent issues as a member of the Swiss Young Academy: Gustavo Ruiz Buendia says, "We want to address problems that young people are itching to solve."

When she was just 13, Fanny Georgi attended a lecture by Nobel Prize laureate Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard. From that time on, she knew she wanted to study molecular biotechnology. Now the virologist advocates for more fairness and sustainability in the academic community, both in her position at the University of Zurich (UZH) as Head of Faculty and Professorial Affairs at the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Science, and as a member of the Swiss Young Academy (SYA). In this interview, Fanny Georgi talks about what is needed to promote equal opportunity, how important dialogue is for finding solutions, and which quirk she has developed from working in a laboratory

The new speaker of the Swiss Young Academy would like to have the voice of young researchers heard more in politics and their working conditions improved. In doing so, Lucas Müller is also doing himself a service.

She could have imagined becoming a journalist – and ended up at the Federal Office of Justice. Aimée Zermatten, a lawyer and founding member of the Swiss Young Academy. She doesn’t know where her path will take her. But one thing is likely to be clear: monotony is not an option for the young woman from Valais. That’s why she wants to try out new things at the Swiss Young Academy.

From communist China to the capitalist USA: as a child, BinBin Pearce was confronted with two completely different cultures. It was perhaps this experience that paved her way to transdisciplinarity. Today she is an environmental scientist at ETH Zurich and a member of the Executive Board of the Swiss Young Academy.

The Swiss Young Academy, together with the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, is holding a panel discussion on the topic of “Fake News and Conspiracy Theories” on 29 September, on the occasion of the Prix Média and Prix Média Newcomer awards ceremony. Co-organizer Sabrina Heike Kessler explains in this interview how research can react to fake news.

“One only has one life to lead!”, regrets Darius Farman, a researcher with the liberal think tank Avenir Suisse, in a moment of alert relaxation during a walk along the quays of Ouchy, in Lausanne. To ease this frustration that has haunted him since his early childhood, he was to opt for multidisciplinary studies, embark on a career as a think-tank expert and develop a passion for theatre. He has proudly joined the Swiss Young Academy, where he is keen to contribute his expertise in order to study the role of science in the Swiss legislative process. 

An apprenticeship as a pharmacist, a vocational baccalaureate, environmental engineering studies. Devi Bühler’s path into the academic world was not a straightforward one. That’s why in the Swiss Young Academy she is standing up for the universities of applied sciences, for which she would like to see more recognition. And with her “KREIS-Haus”, she shows how know-how can be applied practically.

What do flows of money have to do with climate change? How can coal miners participate in the green transition? With these topics, Florian Egli moves at the interface between science, politics and society. As a member of the Executive Board of the Swiss Young Academy, he wants to help to strengthen this interface.

She is an award-winning, feminist researcher, enthusiastic snowboarder and dog lover: Stefanie Boulila. With the Young Academy, she is committed to improving the precarious working conditions of women and other minorities in science and to exposing deplorable situations. “There is a great deal to do,” she says in the interview. “And young researchers want to change things.”

He describes himself as an “unconventional” jurist and wants to enrich the Young Academy with “original and radical ideas”. Stefan Schlegel, 37, senior assistant at the University of Bern and a new member of the Young Academy.

She specializes in human rights and diversity, has lived in Germany, Ecuador and Spain – and has made Switzerland her adopted country. This means she is a networker out of experience and conviction: Estefania Cuero, a new member of the Young Academy.

How freely will the total of 29 elected “high performers” be able to develop in the Young Academy? What role will their culture of meeting people play in this? Collective intelligence must not be ignored in any case.  To what extent does the Young Academy provide a framework for steering academic ideas in unusual, new directions? Silvie Cuperus and Anna-Katharina Ehlert in original sound. This is what the two Advisory Council members of the Swiss Young Academy have to say about the election of the young researchers.