The drive to discover

Many of the minerals that adorn the desk in Detlef Günther's office have a story behind them. He found the rock crystal above Vättis in the Tamina valley, the cassiterite in Bolivia and the tourmaline in Brazil – all souvenirs from an extraordinary trip that also took him to Mexico. In 2009 he was dumbstruck by what he saw underground when he visited the Naica Mine with a team of doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows. Tree trunk-sized gypsum crystals of astonishing beauty towered over him. Not that it was possible to enjoy it for long, he explains: temperatures in the cavern averaged 60 degrees, and humidity was at nearly 100%. The man is well travelled and has much to tell.

For a chemistry student in East Germany in the mid-1980s, ETH Zurich was a veritable temple for Günther: a university with such tradition and renown in the world of chemistry that it was simply out of reach. Yet Günther would find himself in Zurich much sooner than he could have imagined, albeit via a detour to Newfoundland. As a post-doc in 1994, he spent a year at Memorial University in St. Johns, a “gorgeous, cold and very remote place”, as he recalls it. In other words, it was the perfect place to focus on his work. In Newfoundland, he met earth scientist and ETH Zurich professor Christoph Heinrich. Heinrich, who was interested in the formation processes of mineral raw materials in the Earth's interior, invited Günther to come to Zurich to work on a laser-based method of microanalysis.

Two become one

As a part of Heinrich's group, Günther looked for new ways to improve the study of fluid inclusions in quartz. He had an idea of how to attain that goal, though it was somewhat unconventional. “I suggested to my boss that we create a dual laser microscope by sawing two microscopes in half and combining them to make a new one. ETH is the only place where you can suggest something like that.” With his homemade machine, he succeeded in drilling tiny holes in quartz with a laser beam, thereby becoming the first person to quantify the chemical elements in micro-inclusions. Today, the laser ablation system is used worldwide to analyse solids.

Günther recalls the pioneering spirit that prevailed in the mid-1990s, when post-docs, doctoral students and mechanics in the Department of Earth Sciences tinkered with the development of tools and methods day and night. He was most impressed by the mechanics at ETH Zurich – “the professors of the workshop”, as he calls them. He describes how fascinated he is every time he goes into the workshop and holds a new tool in his hands that was built at ETH. In the beginning, a simple sketch by the researcher is often the only resource available, but the specialists in the workshop manage time and again to construct a prototype and advance the state of research a little bit further.

Back to chemistry

After three years in the Department of Earth Sciences, the analytical chemist was drawn back to chemistry to develop his own instruments and methods of trace element analysis and to press ahead with basic research in this field. When an assistant professorship opened at the former Department of Chemistry in 1998, Günther applied for the position and was duly appointed. His colleagues welcomed and supported him from the outset, he says. But Günther knew that his position, which was not a tenure-track job, would end after six years. So toward the end of his professorship, he began to think about his future beyond the world of ETH Zurich. In fact, he came close to accepting a position at Humboldt University in Berlin in 2003 before ETH (with major support from the chemistry department) offered him an associate professorship in Zurich.

Three years later, he took over as head of the institute in the Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry. He clearly made a good impression, because in 2009 he was called on again when the position of department head became available. “Here we live by the rule, which is often repeated in the run-up to such elections, that offers like that can't really be turned down”, notes Günther with a mischievous grin. From 2010 to 2012, he headed the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, which counted 40 professors among its ranks. Once more, he is full of praise for the members of his research group and the administrative staff in the department, who, in his words, were all highly knowledgeable, full of humour and dedicated to their tasks, making it possible for him to fulfil this additional responsibility.

From Hönggerberg to the centre

As external page announced today, the ETH Board – at the behest of ETH President Ralph Eichler – has named Detlef Günther as the new Vice President Research and Corporate Relations. In the coming three months, various events will remind Günther that while one stage of his ETH career is now over, another is just beginning. Above all, he is looking forward to the four upcoming dissertation defences by his current doctoral students. These events will also be something of a reunion, given that many of the 25 former doctoral students he is so proud of return to Zurich for such occasions.

By the end of the year at the latest, Detlef Günther will have to pack up part of the mineral collection in his office. Another trip – just a short distance but of great significance – is coming up, as he makes his way from Hönggerberg to the centre of Zurich. As a member of the new Executive Board, he will be responsible for all matters related to research as well as science and technology transfer for ETH Zurich. It’s the very heart of the temple.