"Observe the solemn moments, they occur only seldom," wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe*. ETH President Olaf Kübler did not literally cite this maxim of the German poet at the event on ETH's 150 Year Jubilee last week, but he evoked it nonetheless by referring to the fine custom of using time markers to look back, from a festive distance, to fix the current position and to look to the future.

Looking back, Kübler deems the founding of ETH to have been an exceptionally bold undertaking, in which federally structured Switzerland resolved to found a national university. Even though ETH remained firmly rooted in Switzerland, today it was a question of newly positioning the institution in a global context. Amongst other things, this meant the increased use of English as the lingua franca or common language of science. Therefore also the jubilee motto: "Welcome tomorrow“.

Information: fuel of the future

With a view to the future, the president outlined four central scientific fields. One is the information sciences. Because intellect would be more important than matter, and, just as in former decades energy had fuelled progress, information had now taken over this function. New possibilities to process huge amounts of information had also extended today's booming Life Sciences, according to Kübler. Today, these branches of science were able to work on entire systems. In turn, this had precipitated ETH's promotion of systems biology research. Further research priorities, the president went on to say, were sustainability and the shaping of the environment. In this context he mentioned that the primary production of foodstuff could hardly be sustainably achieved without genetically modified organisms.

As far as technology transfer is concerned, Kübler wants ETH to position itself in such a way that it will double its activities in this area in the coming three to four years. ETH would also pay closer attention to students who are starting their courses of studies.

Positioning ETH in its Jubilee Year. large

They are to be helped to better prepare their futures by the use of personal assessments. In the ensuing question round Kübler also said that the number of students who broke off their studies was still too high. He made clear, however that nonetheless a Swiss matura remained sufficient qualification to study at ETH. Kübler went on to reiterate what he had said the previous day on the occasion of this year's New Year's aperitif. Using the example of ETH's aid efforts in connection with the tsunami in Asia, he explained how ETH wanted to respond questions of the meaning and responsibility of science.

Seeking out dialogue

What the Jubilee stands for and the character of the contents it will be filled with, was the subject of presentations from the Jubilee delegate, Meinrad Eberle, and four members of ETH (whose faces also appear in the publicity campaign for the festivities). These four each presented one of the Jubilee's four main themes: "ETH on the Road“, "ETH for All“, "ETH Visions“ and "ETH at Home“. Essentially, all of these themes serve as platforms for encounters, whether within or outside the university.

Eberle pointed out that, the Jubilee was to present ETH as representative of science and technology for tomorrow's society. When the question of the value of fundamental research or engineering sciences was raised from the outside, then ETH had a problem, or at least a need to explain, according to the Jubilee delegate. Based on a dialogue with society at large, he wanted to demonstrate more clearly that taxpayers' money was wisely invested in ETH. With regard to the twelve million Swiss francs for the Jubilee, which did not come from taxpayers' money, Eberle said that it was not the sum that was important, but what was being done with it–and that was a lot.

* "Nehmt die ernste Stimmung wahr, denn sie kommt so selten“