“We are still in a transitional process”

One experience that Dorota Pfizenmaier and Charles Ledoux share is that both doctoral students arrived at ETH Zurich precisely when special protective measures were in place due to coronavirus and a large number of ETH members were working from home. As there were only limited opportunities at this time for face-to-face meet-ups, particularly with researchers from other teams, their exchange was initially focused almost exclusively on their own research group.

In order to get to know researchers from other groups, departments and disciplines, they both came into contact with the Academic Association of Scientific Staff at ETH Zurich (AVETH), which organises both virtual and physical events to enable researchers and scientific staff to meet and network including drinks receptions, guided tours, cooking, coffee, origami classes, bowling, cinema, salsa and many more. Dorota Pfizenmaier was soon involved personally in the AVETH events team and increasingly took on further tasks on the AVETH Board. Meanwhile, Charles Ledoux learnt a great deal about ETH Zurich and its scientific culture thanks to the rETHink project and as president of HAS, the branch of AVETH in the HEST department. His interest in university policy grew out of this.

From fibres and bones to university policy

When it became known in the autumn that Florentine Strudwick (D-CHAB) and Konstantinos Voulpiotis (D-BAUG) were stepping down as President and Vice-President of AVETH, the two decided to take the next step; in October 2022 the AVETH General Assembly elected Charles Ledoux as its President and Dorota Pfizenmaier as Vice-President.

Dorota Pfizenmaier has been a doctoral student in Matthias Peter’s (D-​BIOL) biochemistry research group since 2021. She comes from Poland and is investigating reversible amyloids in human cells. Amyloids are proteins that consolidate to become long and very stable fibres. These aggregates settle in cells, tissues or organs and can cause illnesses such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Amyloids were recently discovered that can transform naturally from the fibre form into soluble and harmless monomers. “Understanding how amyloid reversibility works could contribute to the development of new therapies for amyloid-based diseases,” says Pfizenmaier.

Charles Ledoux is also researching a biomedical issue: he has been a doctoral student in Ralph Müller’s (D-​HEST) Laboratory for Bone Biomechanics since 2020. His doctoral project is addressing the treatment of osteoporosis. He is developing computer models to simulate the behaviour of cells in fragile bones. These models are intended to help align the treatment of osteoporosis to individual patients. Ledoux has already been to many parts of the world: His father is French and his mother is German. He attended secondary school in Japan. His studies have taken him to Canada, Switzerland and Italy. He returned to Switzerland for his doctoral studies.

Learning from the “COVID working mode”

His presidency began with a bombshell: when it was announced before Christmas that doctoral students at ETH were not to receive any cost-​of-living adjustment, AVETH promptly pointed out the urgency of this issue especially to doctoral students in the lower salary brackets and entered talks with all responsible parties. And they have met with some initial success: the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF announced that doctoral salary rates will be adjusted and a working group led by Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, is currently drawing up a system to implement the adjustment at ETH. This will be reflected in the doctoral student salaries from March onwards – with the only reservation being that the Executive Board still has to confirm this.

Other work-related issues requiring the attention of AVETH include the question of how to safeguard the 70 percent protected research time which teaching and other duties encroach on for some doctoral students more than others, the feedback culture in research and various after-effects of the COVID lockdown: “We are still in a transitional process back from working online to a more physical or hybrid mode of working. The learning process here is not yet finished,” says Ledoux.

He adds that doctoral students and researchers are well aware that, compared internationally, they have very good working conditions at ETH. He recognises that AVETH is well integrated into the university’s rETHink development project and that this is paying off: “We scientific staff will be doing ourselves a favour if AVETH helps to strengthen the ETH spirit,” says Ledoux and praises the commitment of his predecessors Florentine Strudwick and Rosa Visscher.

Support for the “first generation”

AVETH is also facing challenges, says Dorota Pfizenmaier. For example, the number of active members has stagnated since the COVID pandemic and it tends to be more popular with doctoral students than postdoctoral researchers. “We want to strengthen ties within the community of researchers and are considering new ways of engaging in dialogue.” In recent months these have included a writing course, a book club and a working group addressing the issue of scientific misinformation in society.

Altogether the number of areas of responsibility and working groups within AVETH has grown: “We therefore wish to enhance our organisation to make processes simple and easy to manage,” says Pfizenmaier. “After all, all work at AVETH is voluntary.” 

The voluntary commitment includes a confidential counselling team which provides support to scientific staff members in stressful situations and recently a mentoring initiative for  doctoral candidates who are the first members of their family to attend university. Together with ETH Diversity, AVETH also presents the Diversity Award to persons who voluntarily stand up for diversity and inclusion at ETH Zurich. AVETH also co-selects the winners of the Art of Leadership Award, the Dandelion Entrepreneurship award and the KITE teaching award.

Global trends such as the war in Ukraine and the unrest in Iran are partially affecting the activities of AVETH. “We at AVETH support ETH members who come from these countries and make sure they are warmly welcomed at ETH,” says Dorota Pfizenmaier.