Beat Gerber: "I envy students the sheer diversity of courses now available at ETH."

When you were a kid, what did you want to be?

As a lad, I was fascinated by animals, especially big cats. Tigers were my favourites. I simply loved visiting the zoos in Berne and Zurich. So zoologist was at the very top of the list of what I wanted to do when I grew up. It was followed by vet because we lived near a large farm, where you could attend interesting object lessons. Ultimately, however I followed my father into engineering.

You graduated in civil engineering at ETH Zurich. What inspired you to study at ETH?

I had the option of ETH in Zurich or Lausanne. Zurich was closer to home and I was delighted to get out of Berne. Initially, I set off in the same direction as my father and enrolled for mechanical engineering. But I found it too restrictive so changed course after a couple of weeks.

I was attracted by the huge variety of topics on the course, everything from bridge-building and the construction of sewage plants to urban and land use planning. I specialised in water supply and distribution. I found the construction of dams and hydroelectric power stations simply incredible and wanted to get involved in projects like that in Brazil. Unfortunately, that never happened. So I worked in dynamic structural analysis, sizing complex constructions such as nuclear power stations to withstand earthquakes and plane crashes. However, over time I started to find this work too monotonous and too specialised, I didn’t want to become a nerd. I was also missing the social element at work.

How did your degree from ETH help you?

I have a kind of love/hate relationship with ETH: while I was studying there, it had the stigma of being a “military establishment” and was very formalistic. But the strictly regulated teaching was very practical, you weren't chasing rainbows. It provided a very good base, you learnt to think logically and analyse things. And that remains true today. There may well have been more freethinkers and more student freedoms at the universities. But I preferred the breadth of the civil engineering course and have always benefited from my degree.

After ETH, you took a couple of semesters in sociology and journalism and have continued to study throughout your life, particularly in the fields of journalism, communication and project management. What was the common theme to all your studies?

Sociology and journalism were a kind of taster course at university. I have always been very curious and had lots of different interests. Sometimes, it feels like I have had too many! In 1980 I helped what was then the Schweizerisches Katastrophenhilfekorps, a Swiss body providing humanitarian aid. We built a refugee camp in the Philippines. When I came back, I took a continuing studies course in energy at the School of Engineering in Basel. I then spent ten years working as an energy consultant and planner in the private sector.

I’ve always loved writing so I made the move to scientific journalism. Initially, I was a freelancer, then in 1993 there was a job advertised at “Tages-Anzeiger” and I got it! You need to be curious to be a journalist. I was motivated by critical debates on important issues from the worlds of science and technology. My research took me to some interesting places, such as the Chernobyl and Sellafield nuclear plants, to India’s IT hub of Bangalore and agricultural research in the north-east of Brazil. Today's journalists can only dream of such travel, media now controls its purse strings very tightly and they are stuck glued to their screens in the office here in Switzerland.

There was a good reason why in 2002 I took on the role of communications manager at the Paul Scherrer Institute. It was an intensive time. Five years later, the then PSI Director Ralph Eichler was elected ETH President and took me with him to a newly created role when he made the move to Rämistrasse. I worked as his personal communications advisor, or what we now call a “spin doctor”, until my retirement in March 2014.

You became an engineer at ETH but have kept busy as a science journalist during your retirement. What does that show?

That I’m still curious. I’ve continued to write articles in my capacity as a science journalist and also a wine journalist. Four and a half years ago, I published a pamphlet entitled “An den Tisch der Mächtigen!” which called on ETH to be braver and take a stance publicly on important issues, like climate change. Today I still write scientific pieces for the online newspaper “Infosperber”.

And I've started drawing again. It’s a skill I’ve rediscovered and I find it fun to produce caricatures with shades of politics in them. I no longer have the pressure of publication so do it for pure satisfaction. But at 72, you start to slow down and tire more quickly; you have to concentrate on what’s important.

For you, that obviously includes treading new paths and writing a book. In 2020 you published “Raclette chinoise”, a detective story surrounding science policy.

The story has been in the making for a long time. All the action happens in Berne on the city’s political stage. The story revolves around a highly controversial, artificial intelligence-based monitoring technology, that is being researched at a Zurich university (in other words: ETH) and is being paid for by the Chinese. The project puts the cat amongst the pigeons for science policy, combined with intrigue and allegations of corruption. A high-ranking civil servant is pulled out of the River Aare dead. Was it a political murder linked to the explosive monitoring technology? I don't want to give any more away but I do recommend it as a good read.

Who is the book aimed at?

Discerning readers, who are interested in new technologies, such as algorithms that can reliably pick up feelings. It’s also all about the groups of hot-headed people you find surrounding political and financial clout. The detective story is set in the wonderful city of Berne and international locations, such as Shenzhen and Vaduz.

Writing this book was a completely new experience for me. As a journalist you tend to take an analytical and explanatory approach. But in a detective story, you have to tell the story in scenes and using dialogue to make it more interesting. It’s all still new to me and I’ve a lot to learn.

Do you have any tips for today’s students?

At present, things are tough for students with all the higher education establishments closed. There are no personal interactions in lecture theatres or cafeterias. Coronavirus has hit student life hard. I feel sorry for the young people but nevertheless, the pandemic will come to end at some point.

I envy students the sheer diversity of courses now available at ETH. If they want to effectively shoulder responsibility going forward, there is a lot for ETH students to do on this planet to plan for and shape an environmentally- and socially-responsible world. ETH provides a solid basis for a career spanning a wide range of interests. Please seize the opportunity to build a post-fossil fuel society!