A turbulent year
The coronavirus has flipped ETH Zurich’s working and teaching life on its head. Before the second wave hit, we asked ETH members how this extraordinary year has been for them and what they hope will come out of it.
These photos were taken before masks were made compulsory at all ETH Zurich sites.
Mariasole Agazzi, Bachelor’s student in interdisciplinary sciences
Alfred K?pf, lecturer in patent law, D-CHAB
“Initially I wasn’t sure whether working from home would function on such a large scale, but I’ve now seen that it works on a technical front and that people have the determination to make it all possible. I miss face-to-face contact, though – you can’t enjoy spontaneous conversations or almost anything outside your day-to-day work. It’s a real challenge.”
Elise Nardin, Office of the President employee, International Affairs
“It’s hard to even think about holidays this year. Instead, I’ve been trying to enjoy the small pleasures in life, like good chats with friends, the sunshine or a great book. I hope to be able to visit my sister in Paris again soon without having to quarantine. Ultimately, what I want is just to stay healthy.”
Jan Richner, doctoral student in technology and innovation management
“I haven’t had much contact with my colleagues while I’ve been working from home, which has had an impact on my working relationships. I hope that I’ll be able to run my experiments without any issues next year, even if the pandemic is still going. I also want to take part in a research visit abroad and do a summer school course.”
Andreas la Roi, e-publishing employee, ETH Library
Jungwon Lim, Master’s student in physics
Christoph Grab, Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, D-PHYS
Sylvain Petitgirard, senior assistant, D-ERDW
“This year I’ve learned that working from home is a good thing. Especially during lockdown, I was able focus more on my work and reflect more on what I was doing. Looking towards next year, I hope that the pandemic will be over. I was supposed to get married this year but we had to cancel it. I hope we can do it next summer.”
Meike Akveld, lecturer in mathematics, D-MATH
This article appeared in the latest ETH magazine "life".