"First Lady" named at the ETH Zurich

It took 152 years, but now the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) Zürich for the first time named a femal rector: Prof. Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach. She will succeed the present Rector, Prof. Konrad Osterwalder in September and will join the club of European rectors that has really been a men´s world so far.

Photo: First Lady named at the ETH Zurich
It is now for the ETH Board to ratify the nomination of the new Rector. Heidi
Wunderli-Allenspach is expected to take over the office of Rector in early September
2007 from Konrad Osterwalder, who is stepping down from this function.
Unlike the Vice-Presidents of Research, and Planning and Logistics, the Rector
of ETH Zurich is not appointed by the ETH Zurich President. It is the more than
360 professors who propose and nominate their Rector as professorial representative.
 
The new Rector is responsible for all teaching-related matters. She is
one of the four-member Executive Board of ETH Zurich.
Betram Batlogg, Vice-President of the Professorial Conference which forwarded
the nomination says “Mrs. Wunderli-Allenspach is intimately familiar with the
teaching system and has proven her commitment through her work on the implementation of the Bologna Accord, with its attendant introduction of new paths
of study. She has the full faith and confidence of the professors.”
 
Ties to Zurich and ETH Zurich
Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach has been a full Professor in Biopharmacy at the Institute
of Pharmaceutical Sciences since 1995. She has been deputy head of the
Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB).
Prof. Wunderli-Allenspach (b.1947) is a citizen of Zurich and received her masters
degree in biology from the ETH Zurich Department of Natural Sciences.
She trained in electron microscopy at the Brain Research Institute of the University
of Zurich, and moved on to postgraduate studies in experimental medicine and biology before transferring to the Biozentrum of the University of Basel to write her doctoral thesis. Thereafter she worked for two years as a postdoctoral student at Duke University in Durham N.C., USA; three years at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) in Epalinges, and a further three years at the Institute for Immunology and Virology of the University of Zurich. She then came
back to ETH Zurich, where she was appointed an Assistant Professor effective
October 1, 1986 and Associate Professor in 1992.

11.06.2007

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