It started with a Tomato

We met at an ETH Circle gathering in the summer of 2025, where one of the activities was a competition to build a miniature rocket capable of generating as much thrust as possible. By chance, we ended up on the same team. Why we named our rocket Tomato One remains something of a mystery, but the engineering was sound: Tomato One won.

More importantly, we discovered that we worked remarkably well together. We shared a sense of humour, a similar outlook on science, and an enthusiasm for turning ambitious ideas into reality.

At the time, ETH Swiss GeoLab was already taking shape. Verena, together with Thomas Zurbuchen and colleagues across ETH Zurich, had helped develop the vision and secure the generous support of the Jörg G. Bucherer Foundation. The next challenge was to turn that vision into a functioning centre, build a team and get the first projects underway.

We had discovered that we made a good team. As it turned out, we would soon have an opportunity to put that theory to a much bigger test.

All roads lead to ETH (eventually)

Our paths to ETH Zurich were quite different, although both involved a few international detours.

One of us found her way from Germany to Canada, pursuing a fascination with forests and the question of how science can help us manage natural resources more sustainably. The other spent more than 14 years with NASA, working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on Earth science, technology development and research programme management. While one of us was busy figuring out what was happening in forests, the other was helping develop ways to observe our planet from space.

Having both lived and worked abroad, we share an appreciation for different perspectives, international collaboration and the occasional peculiarities of Swiss life. Between us, we have navigated international research institutions, complex scientific programmes and transatlantic moves. Surely finding our way through Swiss administrative procedures couldn’t be that difficult?

Despite our different professional paths, we share a conviction that excellent science is essential, but seeing scientific discoveries and technologies make a tangible difference beyond academia is particularly rewarding.

As it turns out, bringing these different perspectives together has proved rather useful. And we would soon discover that building something new requires considerably more than good ideas and scientific expertise.

We have the data. Now what?

Between us, we have spent much of our careers trying to understand our planet, albeit from rather different vantage points. And we have witnessed an extraordinary transformation in what science and technology can tell us about it.

Today, satellites observe our planet with unprecedented detail and frequency. Combined with measurements from drones, sensors on the ground and advances in artificial intelligence, they allow us to monitor changes in forests, agricultural landscapes and potentially unstable mountain slopes in ways that would have seemed almost unimaginable just a few decades ago.

But there is a catch: more data does not automatically mean better decisions.

A forest manager doesn’t necessarily need another satellite image. They need to know which forests are becoming vulnerable and what they can do about it. A farmer needs to understand where interventions will make a difference. And authorities responsible for natural hazards need reliable information about where risks are developing, preferably before something happens.

The challenge is not simply to collect more observations or develop ever more sophisticated algorithms. It is to connect scientific capabilities with the questions people are actually trying to answer.

This is where we see an enormous opportunity for GeoLab: bringing together the people who understand the problems with those who can develop the technologies to help solve them.

Of big ambitions and bureaucratic detours

Turning this ambition into reality has been quite an adventure. And while we had anticipated scientific and technological challenges, some of the biggest surprises came from rather different directions.

Finding the right home for GeoLab took some work, but the welcome we received in the Canton of Lucerne made the process considerably easier. Root’s central location and excellent transport connections make it easier to bring together partners from research, industry and government across Switzerland. The enthusiasm and support we encountered made us feel at home almost immediately.

Establishing a new ETH Zurich location, on the other hand, proved a little more complicated. Between developing administrative structures, navigating internal processes and recruiting the right people, we discovered that building a research centre requires a skill set not necessarily covered by our academic training.

But these experiences have also been rewarding. We have met remarkable people, discovered an extraordinary willingness to collaborate and learned a great deal along the way. Most importantly, we are now assembling a team that shares our enthusiasm for turning scientific ideas into practical solutions.

What has surprised us most, however, is how many people share our ambition and how much becomes possible when they start working together.

From lift-off to impact

On 16. October 2026, we officially opened ETH Swiss GeoLab in Root. Looking around the room, surrounded by colleagues, partners and supporters who had helped make it possible, was a rather special moment. After months of planning, countless conversations and more than a few unexpected challenges, GeoLab had become a reality.

And we were particularly pleased that we already had some science to show for it.

Our first experiments in the Lötschental involved testing two drone-mounted radar systems over the Oigschtchummun glacier to measure glacier surface movements under real alpine conditions. Together with technology partners, and drawing on the expertise of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and relevant authorities, we are exploring where such technologies could complement existing natural-hazard monitoring systems. It is early days, and there is still much to learn, but that is precisely the point: testing promising technologies under real-world conditions, understanding their limitations and working with practitioners to develop solutions that make a difference.

Natural hazards are just the beginning. Together with partners across ETH Zurich and beyond, we are building GeoLab around three initial missions: natural hazards, agriculture and forestry. Across all three, we want to combine Earth observation and environmental data with artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Working with partners including the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, we are developing a shared geospatial AI capability to make these data more accessible and useful. Most of our research and development will take place through interdisciplinary collaborations, drawing on expertise across ETH Zurich and beyond. Our ambition is to accelerate the journey from research to practical applications, creating economic and societal value in Switzerland and beyond.

We know that not every experiment will succeed, and some challenges will take time to address. But we are convinced that bringing the right people and perspectives together can accelerate the journey from scientific discovery to practical application.

Looking back, there is something rather fitting about how our collaboration began. Our first joint project, Tomato One, was all about generating thrust. With GeoLab, we have a rather different ambition: bringing the benefits of space technology firmly back down to Earth.