We Are ETH

Rasmus Rothe is all about AI. Co-founder and CTO of Berlin-based company Merantix, he builds and scales AI ventures, and enables an AI co-working community at the Merantix AI Campus.Rasmus Rothe studied Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Oxford, Princeton and ETH Zurich. He is the co-founder and CTO of Merantix, “the world's first artificial intelligence platform dedicated to researching, building and investing in AI companies”. The company works on AI-powered ideas to resolve some of the world's most complex problems, from cancer screening to automated trading.Rasmus says that AI is neither good nor bad. It’s about how it’s applied. In this episode, we learn about the potential and the pitfalls of AI, hear about the profound impact of ChatGPT, and the need for government spending and regulations in Europe.What are the biggest challenges around the successful application of generative artificial intelligence over the next few years? What are the politics of AI? How does Rasmus think it will evolve?This is his story.

According to Felix Graf, media was the first one to be hit by the internet, so it will be the first one to be hit by AI. At the same time, quality journalism has never been more important.Felix Graf changed career direction several times: from music to physics, consulting to telecom, then energy and media. But one thing stood him in good stead throughout his journey that eventually led him to the helm of NZZ: his ETH Zurich experience. It was there he says he learned how to learn, how to be curious, and how to surround oneself with smart people.In this episode, we get to know Felix’ passion for jazz and fundamental physics. Having completed a PhD in quantum optics at ETH Zurich, he intended to become a professor – until he realised that he wanted to change field because what he was working on was so niche, no one really knew about it.We learn about developing resilience; how sometimes you just have to do something completely different; and that you need to learn from setbacks, and not only define yourself through your profession.This is his story.

While Maya Bundt originally set out to study biology and geoscience, her career led her to become an expert in cybersecurity after spending 20 years in reinsurance.Maya Bundt is a Member of the Board of several companies and organisations, including the Cyber Peace Institute. She also chairs the Cyber Resilience Chapter at the Swiss Risk Association, and she is member of the Cybersecurity Commission of digitalswitzerland.Maya explains how her research took her to Zurich, and we hear about her fascinating soil experiments, which she conducted by engaging large groups of people to help her take hundreds of samples. We learn about her non-linear career path, which took her first into management consulting and reinsurance, eventually leading her to the topic of cybersecurity.As Maya Bundt puts it herself: “life happens.” In this podcast, she helps us connect the dots to explain a colourful career that includes soil science at ETH, a stint in management consulting, and a long stretch in reinsurance. This sets the scene for how she became the leading expert in cybersecurity she is today.She explains why we are vulnerable to cyberthreats, and why we need to understand and manage those risks personally as well as a society.This is her story.

Hans Gut’s career took him all over the world and through some difficult moments, before he dedicated himself to the Careum Foundation in Zurich.Studying at mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich at a time before computers where ubiquitous, Hans Gut explains you had to queue to submit your punch cards into a machine. While he was at ETH, Hans completed two internships that both led him to future employers. His global business career eventually led him to become the President of the Careum Foundation which specialises in healthcare training, where he worked for 20 years before retiring recently.In this episode, Hans Gut explains how he successfully put out an ad in the NZZ saying he was looking for a job, and was overwhelmed by the response. We learn about the importance of family, and having to go through some situations where you don’t like parts of the job you are doing.Hans tells us about taking opportunities to build up something from scratch, surrounding yourself with the right people, and building powerful teams.This is his story.

Joe Paradiso’s time at ETH Zurich was a period that helped him grow as a researcher, and develop a deep appreciation for Europe – as well Swiss food! Joe’s extraordinary and prolific career has taken him from high energy physics to spacecraft control systems, past wearables, sensors and synthesizers. He is currently the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor in Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab.In this episode, we learn about what happened when Joe came to Zurich having been warned that ETH was a conservative place. He tells us that when he makes choices, he wants to take a road that will lead to other roads. We hear about Joe’s definition of the metaverse; his love of electronic music and science fiction; a Proustian moment involving a sip from a Hürlimann beer; and whyhe came to a small technical college called ETH…This is his story.

After studying at ETH Zurich, Ogi Stanovcic connected the dots between cybersecurity and videoconferencing. And he certainly didn’t think he would end up staying in the same company for 25 years.When Ogi was recommended to leave former Yugoslavia and go study at ETH Zurich, he didn’t have Switzerland on his radar. But when he was here, he started to love it so much it was clear he was going to stay. Literally everything in his life today is still very closely connected to ETH: his professional choices, his circle of friends, the professors that made an impact whom he collaborates with to this day, and the students that come to Open Systems to work with top experts in cybersecurity.In this episode, we learn what first made Ogi Stanovcic come to Switzerland, and then ultimately made him decide to stay. We hear about the promise and perils of ChatGPT, about how one time the best bandwidth to be had in the country was at ETH Zurich, and how it’s actually possible to be friends with those with whom you are in business with.This is his story.

ETH alumna Mulan Sun says being an architect is a job where you must use all your sensitivity to identify problems, and all your creativity to solve them. Born and raised in China, Mulan Sun moved to Switzerland, learned German and completed her studies in architecture at ETH Zurich. She is the President of the Swiss Chinese Chamber of Architects and Artists. She's also the founder of an architectural and interior design firm based in Zurich, and a lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Mulan is also a passionate expert in chado, the Japanese tea ceremony.In this episode, Mulan explains how she made up her mind to move from China to study architecture, and specifically to ETH to do this. She faced many challenges, and tells us how she turned them into an advantage, becoming a unique architect bringing together East and West, with values and perspectives shaped by her time at ETH and her upbringing in China. This is her story.

Alumni and former decathlete Luca Di Tizio is a recent graduate from ETH Zurich, now working for deep tech startup Microcaps, an ETH spinoff company.Luca Di Tizio is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from ETH Zurich, with a focus on Biomedical Engineering. He currently works on bringing Swiss precision to the world of microencapsulation with Microcaps AG. When he was still a student, he participated in Elon Musk's Hyperloop Pod Competition for two consecutive years. Swissloop placed second out of over 2000 international student teams, and the students continue to develop hyperloop technology to this day.In this episode, you’ll get to know some great insights from the world of sports that apply to research and development, and even life in general. We also learn why Luca thinks that sports and ETH overlap too little in his view, and get to know the fascinating worlds of fluidics and hyperloop technology.This is his story.

Strategist Julie Cantalou recently transitioned to the world of politics. What are her ambitions as a politician, and how can ETH Zurich contribute to policymaking?Julie Cantalou has many family ties to ETH Zurich, in addition to working in the Office of the President as a strategist. Since then, her passion for politics has led her to become involved in it full-time with the Swiss Green Liberal Party. Julie believes that ETH Zurich has a key role to play at the nexus of science and policy. The issues she hopes to have impact on personally are the energy transition, education and the economy, and these are sure to play out in the upcoming elections. Meet Julie Cantalou, a former colleague from the Office of the President at ETH Zurich who has made the transition to the world of politics. She is the Co-Secretary General of the Swiss Green Liberal Party. In this episode, you’ll get to know the Swiss political system, learn about ETH’s role in policymaking, and find out what are the key issues Julie is campaigning for in the elections in Zurich on 12 February 2023. This is her story.Download transcript of this episode.

An expert on HR, leadership and people issues, Shanthi Flynn was a scientist before she became a global leader in the field of human resources. How did she find her talent for dealing with people and achieve her illustrious career?Shanthi Flynn joined the human resources field soon after her studies and developed businesses in the retail, manufacturing, healthcare and services sectors around the world. With a focus on organization and people issues, she has unique insights into the connection between education and the world of work.While charting her career as an HR professional, Shanthi talks about her lessons in leadership. She sets out her thoughts on the ethics of technology using the example of AI, and discusses the role of an institution like ETH Zurich in generating discussion and debate on such topics.This is her story.

Patrick Anquetil is an innovator and entrepreneur who studied mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich. His third and current company to date, Portal Instruments, builds needle-free injectors.Patrick grew up in Paris, with a view of the Eiffel Tower from his kitchen window. But he always knew he wanted to study abroad. He decided to study mechanical engineering at ETH because he found the combination of theory and practice on offer there especially appealing. For his master's thesis, Patrick went to the University of Tokyo. The logical next step for Patrick was then to move into the entrepreneurial environment at MIT, which he describes as “a sister school of ETH.” Between 2006 and 2012, he founded two startup companies in the field of medical technology, and he has since then founded a third.For Patrick, everything is an apprenticeship, and he knew from the start that ETH would “a place where stuff happens.” On his start-up experience, he says being an entrepreneur is always harder than you think.This is his story.

George Szpiro is an Israeli-Swiss applied mathematician and journalist who made a name for himself as the author of popular mathematical essays and books.George studied mathematics and physics at ETH Zurich, business administration at Stanford University, and received his PhD in mathematical economics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1984. Along the way, he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey in Zurich, Munich, and London.He became the Israel correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) in Jerusalem in 1986, and he was reassigned to the US in 2012. After the newspaper deadline, George would continue writing at night on science and maths topics. He has written 7 books to date. His latest book on paradoxes will be published in 2023.As a scientist, his research interests are in financial mathematics, risk theory, genetic algorithms, and their use in predicting regularities in time series.This is his story.Read his profile here.Link with all the details: https://circle.ethz.ch/podcast/

Anette Freytag, a Landscape Historian currently at Rutgers University and formerly with ETH Zurich, explains why landscape architecture is not only a discipline but an attitude and a way of life.Anette Freytag combines art and gardens in her study of Landscape Architecture, Theory, History, and Design, whilst seeking ways to give back to the local community. An example is the March to Rutgers Gardens by the AIR Collaborative, of which we play a clip in the episode. A choreographed 2-mile hike, it was a walking campaign to highlight the need to access green spaces on foot or by bike. When Anette remembers ETH Zurich, she cites as one of her highlights receiving the ETH Medal awarded for outstanding scientific research from Heidi Wunderlich, who was the first female Rector of ETH.This is her story.Watershed Video: https://vimeo.com/655364603AIR Collaborative: https://rutgers-aircollaborative.net/https://circle.ethz.ch/podcast/

Felix Seidel is a Data Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Caltech. He shares with us how ETH Zurich influenced him, and continues to be important for him today.You could say that ETH Zurich is the thread red connecting the dots in Felix Seidel’s career. A Data Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) at Caltech in California, Felix’ story begins with his passion for flying. Tune in to find out how his dream career in aviation turned into a scientific one, for which ETH was the place to be. Along the way, Felix explains how to work with satellite data, why he never became an astronaut, and why it’s important to sometimes fail, and learn from it.This is his story.Link with all the details: https://circle.ethz.ch/podcast/

Gisbert Schneider – winner of the Ernst Schering Price 2022 – worked in various places before his professional path led him to ETH, where he now heads the Singapore-ETH Centre.On the occasion of the ETH Circle Annual Meeting, we bring you a special live recording of the We Are ETH Podcast. It features Gisbert Schneider, the Director of the Singapore-ETH Centre and Full Professor of Computer-Assisted Drug Design, in conversation with Susan, with our ETH Circle Members as the audience. They discuss everything from his foray into rock music, to his moves from Frankfurt to Zurich to Singapore.This is his story.Link with all the details: https://circle.ethz.ch/podcast/Download transcription of this episode

It was when Margherita Fontana left ETH Zurich that she realized it had given her a unique value proposition, which was solid baggage to take with her to the corporate world.Our 6th episode is all about ETH alumna and chemist Margherita Fontana of Dow Chemicals. A scientist at heart, she discusses with host Susan how resilience comes from learning how to cope with uncertainty, and how she came to drive change because she didn’t feel included. An advocate for women in STEM, she explains how ETH prepared her for the challenges she would encounter later in her career, by laying the foundations for dealing with complexity, and problem-solving.This is her story.Please also have a look at here profile here.Download transcription of this episode

Philippe Kahn, a serial technology innovator, and entrepreneur, who studied mathematics at ETH Zurich, is credited with creating the first camera phone solution.In this episode, Susan talks to Philippe Kahn, founder of four successful technology companies, with a focus on his most recent passion: sleep. In addition to talking about the content of his work, Philippe shares his work ethic, which explains why he still practices playing the flute daily. He also connects the dots for us between his passion for sailing, Einstein, and mathematics.Follow this link for more details: https://circle.ethz.ch/podcast/Download transcription of this episode

Switzerland's former ambassador to the US Martin Dahinden made many exciting encounters during his diplomatic career, and ETH Zurich played a key role throughout.In this episode, Susan talks to Swiss diplomat Martin Dahinden. Having studied economics, Martin held various positions in the diplomatic service, including with Swiss Missions to the UN and NATO. Before becoming the Swiss Ambassador to the US in 2014, he was Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. He is an expert on Swiss security policy in an international context and currently lectures on this topic at the neighbouring University of Zurich. A keen cook and great storyteller, he is also the author of a book highlighting the Swiss contribution to culinary history, entitled: “Beyond Muesli and Fondue”.You can read Martin’s ETH Circle portrait here: Martin Dahinden – ETH CIRCLE. This is his story.Download transcription of this episode

It seems like Martin was destined to go to ETH Zurich. From an early age, he showed interest in disassembling electrical objects with a lack of propensity for assembling them again, which pointed the way towards learning how to do that – with a little nudge from a friendly ETH faculty in the neighborhood. From then on, he kept a close relationship with the institution, which still continues to this day. Martin takes us through this journey, starting with his studies in Electrical Engineering, continuing with his travels across the world, and explaining how he came into the world of the internet.“If more people knew about engineering, they would find their passion in it, because you can really do a lot… I mean, you can change the world.”Episode 3 tells the story of ETH alumnus Martin Bosshardt, one of the founding members of the ETH Circle. You can read his profile here: https://circle.ethz.ch/member/martin-bosshardt/. The former CEO of Open Systems, Martin is currently leading ETH Spin-off company Anapaya Systems, which provides SCION-based networking software and solutions – a new internet technology for more secure and more reliable online networks.Link with all the details to be found on the ETH Circle websites.Download transcription of this episode

Jennifer’s story is one of coming full circle. Originally from Detroit and having recently moved back there, Jennifer explains how her serendipitous path and global living experiences built on each other: From Detroit to Colorado to study anthropology; to Senegal and Ghana in order to see this work on the ground; to New York and living through 9/11, creating a need to focus on understanding terrorism and crisis, which took her to California for further studies; to Switzerland in order to go deeper in this field at the ETH Zurich Center for Security Studies; and back to the US.Back to Detroit in fact, to be a part of a new community that looks to create spaces and rebuild the city in a new light, based to a large extent on the theoretical background and principles from her work at ETH. “ETH gave me a canvas, and they gave me the best paints in the world. And they said: “paint what you want.” And as a creative, in terms of thinking, writing, seeing, interpreting, analyzing, it gave me this license to dance across a couple of different domains that were all about our environment, and our interplay with our environment.”In our second episode, Susan talks to Jennifer Giroux dialing in from Detroit, USA, about connecting the dots that led her back to her hometown, via ETH Zurich and beyond. Jennifer is a social research and strategy consultant focusing on the social impact space. She spent seven years at the ETH Zurich Center for Security Studies. She is an active member of the ETH Circle.Please find more information on the ETH Circle network here.Download transcription of this episode

ETH Zurich was not Jeannine's first choice for a place of study, but she made the switch because she was looking for more opportunities to apply her creative side. “At ETH, you learn that it is entirely up to you what you want to make out of your university experience. ETH gives you a lot of freedom in how you can achieve your goals.”This was exactly the foundation she needed, as it gave her the freedom to develop both her skills and personality. "We are not machines. Students are all individuals, and they need the liberty to find which way they want to go," says Jeannine.In the first episode of our alumni podcast series "We are ETH", Susan meets Jeannine Pilloud, the CEO of Ascom Holding AG. You can read Jeannine's ETH Circle portrait here: https://circle.ethz.ch/member/jeannine-pilloud/.Listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich, Ascom is a global telecommunications company focusing on wireless on-site communications. Jeannine is its CEO since 2019. Previously, she notably held positions at IBM and SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways. After first studying German, history, and journalism at the University of Zurich, she went on to complete a degree in architecture at ETH Zurich. She was recently appointed to the Board of the ETH Alumni Association. This is her story.Please find more information on the ETH Circle network here.Download transcription of this episode

We Are ETH is a podcast series featuring stories from Alumni of ETH Zurich around the globe. Hosted by ETH Circle Member and Entrepreneur Susan Kish, We Are ETH brings you conversations with the people who have taken their ETH experience out into the world and turned it into a company, a career, and a way of life.