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 r...

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...

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 Commiss...

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 em...

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. Drey...

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 st...

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 architect...

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 participa...

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...

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...

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...

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 consul...

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 Gar...

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...

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-Assis...

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...

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 ex...

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...

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 thi...

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 terror...

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...

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.