Bull Shark Tagging in Fiji

I never would have thought that my graduate research at ETH Zurich would lead to skipping a Swiss winter to go fishing for bull sh...

Romana Mayer

Escape to Shark Reef

At our ETH Global team retreat in 2015, we kicked off the day with a playful exercise: on the table was a world map. Each team mem...

Simone

Safeguarding the Future of Chocolate

While we enjoy the bittersweet flavors and smooth textures as they melt on our tongues, the seductive power of chocolate faces a c...

Romana Mayer

Rowing the Atlantic

This is it! The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2017 is about to get started. These words were the culmination of a three-and-a...

Patricia Heuberger-Meyer

What a “shitty” story: Three facts about urban sanitation you should know!

“Have you ever asked yourself, what happens when you flush the toilet? Where exactly does your wastewater go?” I have,...

Patricia Heuberger-Meyer

Meeting the World in Davos

If I tell you it happens every year in January, in the mountains of Switzerland, you may think snow – and there was a lot th...

Simone

Taking A Leap Into Space

October 22, 2026

Nanja Strecker shares how an entrepreneurial mindset and pure curiosity sparked her leap into the space industry.

Nanja Strecker is the Co-Lead of ETH Zurich | Space.

What do a family business, a bank loan and the space sector have in common? More than you might think.

In this personal reflection, Nanja Strecker traces her unconventional journey into space and entrepreneurship, touching on the influence of growing up in an entrepreneurial family, the importance of learning as you go and the courage to enter a field where you are not yet an expert.

“Take risks in your life,” Nanja says, reflecting on lessons from her own path.

Along the way, she also challenges a few assumptions about what it takes to build a start-up and where the resources to do so need to come from.

At its heart, her story is an invitation to stay curious and venture beyond what you already know. So, what might you discover if you took a leap into something you know nothing about yet?

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