Science needs more women
To mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we take a look back at a year shaped by strong women. Although there’s still a long way to go in achieving a gender balance in research and education, ETH Zurich has no shortage of female role models.
The world of science is still too male-dominated. The external page International Day of Women and Girls in Science, initiated by the United Nations General Assembly, draws attention to this every year on 11 February. There is still a long way to go in achieving a gender balance across all levels, even at ETH Zurich, where just 18 percent of its professors and 32 percent of its students are women.
Yet we are seeing initial signs of a shift in this trend. Over the past two years, more than 40 percent of new professorships at ETH have been given to women. And the proportion of women will continue to grow, as about 90 percent of retiring professors are men. This demonstrates that ETH Zurich isn’t just talking about the advancement of women, but is also putting it into practice.
Today is all about the more than 8,500 exceptional women who study, conduct research and establish businesses at ETH Zurich. Their work and commitment contribute every day towards ensuring that ETH is one of the best universities in the world. Here we present a number of female scientists and entrepreneurs who enjoyed particular success in 2021.
Oceans, microorganisms and polymers
Whether it's climate change, new materials, microorganisms or new learning technologies, female researchers at ETH Zurich once again attracted attention last year for their many fascinating discoveries.
Oceans are one of the earth’s most powerful climate drivers because they transport and store heat and carbon. In order to better understand their role in mitigating climate change, ETH Professor Núria Casacuberta Arola is using radionuclides to study water circulation.
ETH Fellow Nadia Shardt is also concerned with water, but in a different physical state. She has been researching how water droplets in clouds freeze to form ice and the role played by dust particles in this process. She hopes that her findings will enable climate models to produce more accurate forecasts.
Materials scientist Athina Anastasaki is researching the next generation of polymers and how they can be recycled. She wants to recover all source materials and use these to produce new materials for other applications.
Serina Robinson, on the other hand, is devoted to microorganisms. She is particularly interested in the enzymes they use to produce and break down chemical substances. The young scientist is also especially fascinated by as yet uncultivated microbes.
Sarah Hofer conducts research into learning technologies for STEM subjects. The scientist investigates how intelligence, prior knowledge and gender can affect learning methods and successful learning outcomes.
ETH Fellow Marianna Charitonidou examines the influence of social changes on architecture. She cites the experience of driving a car as an example. The view from a moving car inspired architects such as Alison and Peter Smithson or Aldo Rossi to develop new design perspectives.
And ETH Professor external page Tanja Stadler is working on the front line in the fight against coronavirus as President of the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force. Her model calculations provide policymakers with a crucial basis for their decision-making and help better understand the course of the pandemic.
Healthy soil, blockchain and coral reefs
A growing number of women at ETH Zurich are venturing into entrepreneurship. In 2021, a quarter of all spin-offs were set up by women.
Intensive farming is causing soil degradation in many areas. Researchers Sonia Meller and Hélène Iven have developed a rapid test for measuring soil quality on-site and also established the spin-off external page Digit Soil. This will allow farmers to monitor the health of their land themselves in the future.
ETH alumna Leonie Flückiger is blazing a trail through the male-dominated world of tech start-ups with her company external page Adresta, which uses blockchain to authenticate luxury timepieces. She wants to encourage and show other women that it’s cool to study at ETH.
Coral reefs are in acute danger due to climate change. Ulrike Pfreundt, Marie Grismar and Hanna Kuhfuss founded the association rrreefs, which harnesses 3D printing to rebuild coral reefs. The first artificial reef was inaugurated in 2021 off San Andrés Island in Colombia.
Reinforced concrete is the most widely used building material in the world. ETH Pioneer Fellow Yurena Seguí Femenias set up the spin-off external page DuraMon in 2021 to better identify corrosion risk in reinforced concrete and thus extend the lifespan of concrete structures.
Biomechanical engineer Bettina Müller has developed a device that can improve examinations of how scars heal. She hopes her device will help doctors in diagnosing skin diseases. Her startup “Nimble” is set to be ready for the market within two years.
In which mental state do we perform best? ETH researchers Sarah Meissner and Marc Bächinger founded the spin-off external page Mindmetrix to find out. Their MyFlow technology helps to strengthen mental resilience.
Women doing award-winning research
In 2021, numerous female researchers at ETH once again received awards for their achievements.
Momoyo Kaijima, Professor of Architecture at ETH Zurich, and her partner Yoshiharu Tsukamoto have received the Wolf Prize for their ethnographically inspired approach to architecture. The Architectural Behaviorology design method they developed aims to better understand the relationships between architecture and society.
Anne Lacaton, Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Design at ETH Zurich, and her partner Jean-Philippe Vassal were awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2021 for their sustainable and socially minded approach to building design. This award is regarded as the Nobel Prize of the architecture world.
ETH pharmaceutical sciences graduate Nicole Stoffel has shown that iron deficiency reduces vaccine efficacy. Her research is now helping to improve the health of children in developing countries. For this, she was awarded the Lopez-Loreta Prize in 2021.
Geochemist Denise Mitrano has developed a method for tracking micro- and nanoplastic particles as they travel through the environment. Last year, this earned her the Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Early last year, Forbes included ETH doctoral candidate Nicole Aegerter in the Manufacturing and Industry category of its “30 Under 30 Europe” list for her research into sustainable fibre-reinforced composites. She would like to see even more support for young women in STEM subjects.
Nako Nakatsuka secured a place on MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators Under 35” list in 2021. This was thanks to her invention of a precise chemical biosensor that helps researchers better understand molecular processes in the brain and thus diseases such as Alzheimer’s, depression and Parkinson’s.
ETH Professor Judit Szulágyi was awarded the MERAC Prize by the European Astronomical Society (EAS) for “Best Early Career Researcher” in Theoretical Astrophysics for her research into the formation of planets and moons.
In 2021, Yiwen Chu was awarded the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Physics. She is researching new ways of connecting quantum technologies, with the aim of creating a quantum telecommunications network for the exchange and storage of quantum information.