Dedicated coach with a passion for research
Detlef Günther is stepping down from his role as Vice President for Research to devote more time to his own research work. A look back over eight successful years.
Detlef Günther is a man who isn’t afraid to show his emotions. When the ETH Vice President for Research addresses topics some would consider as rather dry – such as basic research, research cooperation, platforms, spin-offs and competence centres – his eyes light up and his passion shines through. “The way my team implemented e-Research was just incredible!” he says, caught up in his enthusiasm for the platform on which all internal research applications are received and processed. “A few years ago, when I told my staff how much ETH needed this kind of platform, I got a fairly muted reaction. But then the whole team threw themselves into the project – and now we have a fantastic system that is still at the pilot stage but ready for further expansion!” Günther’s enthusiasm is contagious.
View from above
Günther arrived at ETH as a postdoc 28 years ago, working initially in the Department of Earth Sciences on the development of a laser-based microanalysis technique. In 1998, he took up the post of assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences. In 2008, Günther was appointed Full Professor of Trace Element and Micro Analysis at the Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry, two years after becoming the head of the laboratory. Next came a two-year stint as head of the Department for Chemistry and Applied Biosciences from 2010 to 2012, followed by his appointment to the Executive Board in 2015 as Vice President for Research and Corporate Relations. “My time as an ETH professor showed me how fantastic this university is; I was incredibly impressed with what I saw on a day-to-day basis. But when I joined the Executive Board, it was like hovering over the university in a helicopter: I was able to appreciate ETH in its entirety, with all its diversity, complexity and extraordinary potential. It was wonderful!”
“When I joined the Executive Board, it was like hovering over the university in a helicopter.”Detlef Günther
Sharing is caring
Günther, who will be stepping down from his role as Vice President for Research at the end of this year, enjoys imaginative turns of phrase – sports metaphors are a particular favourite. So does this committed football fan see himself as a kind of coach for ETH research? “Well, we all know you can’t win a game with 11 strikers. That’s why a Vice President for Research needs to put together the right interdisciplinary mix of researchers and maybe even encourage them to try out different positions in the team!” he says with a smile.
Günther, who was born in Germany and acquired a Swiss passport a few years ago, is regarded as the father of several key technology platforms and competence centres that were either established or significantly expanded during his time in office. The Scientific Center for Optical and Electron Microscopy (ScopeM), for example, is testament to his belief in the importance of sharing. He argues that professors should share expensive infrastructure, thereby giving ETH as a whole greater access to cutting-edge technologies. “We have to make responsible use of taxpayers’ money. If someone only uses a certain piece of equipment a few times a year, it makes perfect sense to share it rather than keep it to themselves.”
Sustainable development
Eight years is a long time. Asked to describe how ETH has changed since he joined the Executive Board, Günther immediately points to the university’s massive expansion of research in health and medicine, an area of strategic action that now includes a new Bachelor’s degree programme. And there are other examples: “Sustainability, climate change and net-zero shape everything we do – from the development of our degree programmes to the vegetarian menus in the canteen. Hönggerberg has become a proper campus. Plus we’re doing more than ever to foster our students’ entrepreneurial ambitions: between 2015 and 2020, ETH students and doctoral candidates established over 160 spin-offs!”
He highlights the huge efforts that have gone into strengthening and expanding the entire value chain from basic research to teaching to technology transfer. This, he says, may well be the biggest change of all – both at the university and in people’s heads.
From 2015 to 2020, Günther was responsible for every aspect of research and corporate relations at ETH, a huge workload that would exceed the capabilities of a single individual nowadays. In 2021, the responsibilities were therefore divided between two vice presidents. “ETH has evolved much faster than I ever expected,” he says, before pausing and adding with a smile: “but one thing that hasn’t changed is the quality!”
Lone Warriors
But, however positive the overall trajectory of the past few years, has he experienced any frustrations? Günther sees himself as a coach who does everything he can for his team and for ETH as a whole. He therefore has little sympathy for lone warriors who are only in it for themselves and who make life difficult for their colleagues. It's a drain on people’s energy, he says, which brings few benefits and often causes frustration.
“With so many global challenges knocking at our door, there’s no place for lone warriors any more – not in politics, and not in science.”Detlef Günther
But his biggest concern is Switzerland’s troubled relationship with the European research sector. Since 2015, ETH researchers have been awarded over 150 ERC grants within the Horizon 2020 programme. This impressive tally – a testament to the quality of the submitted projects – unlocked over 250 million Swiss francs of additional EU funding for these projects. And that makes the current situation all the more worrying: “When Switzerland was first excluded from Horizon in 2014, I thought we’d finally understood the damage that going it alone can do to our research sector.” He explains how the negative effects accumulate steadily and stealthily, creating a situation similar to that of climate change, where the realisation of what is at stake comes just too late. So how does Günther believe this political deadlock can be resolved? “I think Switzerland will be forced to make concessions to Europe. With so many global challenges knocking at our door, there’s no place for lone warriors any more – not in politics, and not in science.”
Back to his origins
Günther has to think a moment before responding to the question as to what advice he would give to his successor Christian Wolfrum. Although he doesn’t like to give advice in cases such as these, he goes on to answer: “You should spend as much time as possible talking to as many professors as possible and visit the departments on a regular basis. This way you will learn a lot and build up a network within ETH. This will expand your horizons, which will be to the benefit of the Vice Presidency for Research.”
In 2023, Günther will return to his post as Professor of Trace Element and Micro Analysis, where he already has some projects lined up for his research group of 13 scientists: “We’re hoping to use gravimetric forces to analyse thousands of cells or nanoparticles a second. I think it’s going to be an exciting time...”
If passion for the job is the key quality of a good coach, then Detlef Günther clearly has it in spades!