I’m Behailu, an international student at ETH Zurich and a member of the MAS Sustainable Water Resources class of 2020. I’m originally from Ethiopia, and grew up in a very small rural area with no major infrastructure and rather basic living conditions. So you can imagine how glad I was to be in a new world with a completely different atmosphere and environment. As an international student, my expectations of college were very high. Not only would I be dealing with a foreign culture, country, and language, but also an educational system very different from the one in my home country. My time at ETH Zurich opened a whole new experience for me, presenting countless opportunities for self-improvement as I tackled challenges and achieved goals. I can confidently say I’ve become a much better version of myself – like a system upgrade with super cool features! It was always my dream to attend a world-class university; studying in Switzerland at ETH Zurich is one of the best opportunities I’ve ever had.

Surviving and thriving in lockdown

On the other hand, the pandemic which shook the world severely affected my studies. I felt surprised and frightened when I read the email from the Rector of ETH Zurich announcing that classroom teaching was suspended; on 16 March 2020 everything would go online and staying at home was a must. In my panic, I experienced all the symptoms of Covid-19 that first day, and didn’t sleep the whole night! Since then, time has moved too slowly and life hasn’t been the same. I started to schedule activities during the day to keep me active while enjoying what I like to do most – study and enjoy nature. But those tough times showed me how to be resilient and optimistic when thinking about the future and finding alternatives. The ETH Zoom platform for our online class was outstanding: I was able to interact with my classmates, and this turned out to be the favourite part of my day, and the most fruitful. I also tried to embrace the idea of staying at home, as this gave me more time for research and improving my cooking skills. I’m truly astonished at how I adapted to the situation and was able to overcome the challenges.

Academic values and hospitality: a priceless professional experience

My stay at ETH has been one of the most enriching experiences I’ve ever had: it has advanced me professionally, given me an opportunity to meet and make friends with people from all over the world and to share their culture, and taken me to developed countries such as Germany and Italy. I’ve also learnt to live alone and provide for myself for the first time! The hospitality of the Swiss people and interaction with them were great. Moreover, the continuing education at ETH Zurich has helped me to acquire new knowledge and skills in sustainable water resources. I’ve had excellent exposure to top-level scientific research, and this will enable me to develop and disseminate the expertise needed to solve water management problems.

In interacting with highly qualified professors during my course and research work, I’ve gained a new teaching-learning experience, which will help my academic career. What’s more, studying at ETH Zurich has changed the way I think, enhanced my understanding of various approaches to problem-solving using engineering principles, and led me to see developing countries like Ethiopia through new eyes. As a professional, I have to do more here, and be part of the solution as well. Lastly, my MAS programme has added value in sharing knowledge and experience on sustainable water resources within the university and with water-related sectors at regional and national level.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at behailunadew040@gmail.com / shewit.cute040@gmail.com

About the author

Behailu Nadew was born in the small rural area near North Shoa zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia. He joined Hawassa University and studyied Agricultural Engineering for four years.  As he was one of the top students, he was employed by Ambo University as Lecturer. After working for one year, he joined Arbaminch University to pursue his MSc in Hydraulic and Hydropower Engineering. Behailu came to ETH Zurich for his Master of Advanced Studies in Sustainable Water Resources.

by Rob Nuguid, Doctoral Student at PSI, 4 March 2021

Under normal circumstances, I would have been unconditionally ecstatic to receive an email stating that my application to the Korean–Swiss Young Researcher’s Exchange Programme was successful. But when this happened in mid-February 2020, I found myself in a quandary. As much as I wanted to go to Korea immediately as planned, I simply could not do so due to the looming threat of a COVID-19 pandemic. And so I waited out for months.

When summer came and the situation improved, I started to plan again for my departure. Thanks to the tremendous help that I received from the Leading House Asia and the Science & Technology Office Seoul, I managed to comply with all the requirements despite the difficulties.

I arrived in Korea with the full knowledge that I had to undergo 14 days of strict quarantine in a government facility. I had already prepared myself mentally for this challenge, but it turned out to be not as trivial as I expected. Indeed, my room felt claustrophobic at times. Fortunately, my quarantine period allowed me to catch up on some manuscripts that needed my attention. I also found myself looking forward to the dosirak (see picture) that would wind up in front of my doorstep three times a day. Before long, two weeks had passed and I proceeded directly to my main destination in Korea: Hanyang University.

Upon my arrival, my research supervisor and colleagues welcomed me with much enthusiasm: our whole laboratory even went to dinner together at a traditional restaurant! It was at this point that I learned about a curious drinking etiquette in Korea: after clinking glasses and saying geonbae, the young people must turn away from the elders before drinking. This is but one of the ways that Koreans show filial piety – a Confucian notion that they hold dear.

The research culture in Korea could not have been more different from the system that I was accustomed to, but I managed to adapt in no time due to the support of my labmates. Despite my short stay, I learned atomic layer deposition from scratch and managed to implement it in my research, which has the overarching goal of promoting environmental sustainability.

Just as the taegeuk symbol in the flag of Korea represents balance in the universe, my research exchange turned out to be not just academically stimulating, but also culturally enriching. Interspersed between my scientific experiments are occasional excursions to Korea’s well-preserved heritage sites, that allowed me to understand the country’s history and customs deeply.

Looking back now, I feel that I would have missed out on an incredible adventure if I had not pushed through with the exchange. The most important thing that I took away from my experience is this: from the people who helped me comply with the necessary pre-departure formalities, to the labmates who assisted me every step of the way, the virtue of jeong pervades universally in such a way that not even COVID-19 can dampen it.

About the author

Rob Jeremiah G. Nuguid is a PhD student at Paul Scherrer Institute, where he investigates the structure-activity relationship of heterogeneous catalysts for environmental applications. Aside from pursuing research, he enjoys traveling the world and reading international classics.

Link to Rob’s profile

by Sophia Taylor, exchange student from Ghana, 25 February 2021

My name is Theodora Sophia Taylor. Most people call me Sophia. I’m a postgraduate student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. I came to Zurich as an ETH Zurich for Development student at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. It was generally a bad time everywhere in the world. It was a miracle I even got the visa to come to Switzerland. For the kind of work I wanted to do, I knew the best place for me would be Eawag. I had already met some researchers from there and other Swiss agencies, so I had somewhat of a first experience. I was working on using coconut husk powder to treat greywater for household reuse. I had heard about the WaterHub/Nest project, and my greywater treatment research was in line with it. As I boarded my flight out of Ghana, I experienced an array of emotions and I had a lot of expectations. I was generally excited for my first trip abroad thanks to ETH Zurich. I was aware that it was going to be quite different with masks and social distancing, but I was still jubilant.

The city and its people

I loved the beautiful scenery. Swiss people are nice I must say. I soon became accustomed to saying ‘grüezi’. I won’t say I experienced any cultural shock, or did I? Probably it is how punctual Swiss people were that always surprised me. Knowing that the situation was not the same back home, it felt different to see people drink water so comfortably from the tap and fountains within the city. Initially, I was quite scared to go out because the COVID-19 cases spiked up a few days after my arrival, so I was working from home most times. Later on, I made some lovely memories; from my small trips up the mountains, to the walks along the lake and drives within the city. These made me appreciate nature and understand better the aesthetic value of the environment.

Snow

The most exciting thing about the entire trip for me was seeing snow. It may seem a bit funny, but being my first time abroad it may take a while to forget the feeling. I read the weather report so I knew snow was coming, plus I also had a mental picture of it. It was, however, more beautiful than I could have imagined. I was out most part of this day, taking pictures around Rigiblick where I was staying, in the forests and streets.

I was on the ETH campus a few times before classes were virtual. Outdoor dinners, office coffee breaks and lunch mini discussions with Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (SANDEC) colleagues were all fun. I miss the roasted chestnuts and Christmas lights around town. Although I could not visit many places and do much, I still enjoyed my time and look forward to doing it again when the opportunity presents itself.

About the author

Sophia Taylor:

Born and raised in Ghana.  A master’s student of the Regional Water and Sanitation Centre, Kumasi- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. WASH enthusiast and a movie lover.

by Irina Ritsch, PhD in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, 17 December 2020

2020 is certainly a year that will be remembered by the global community. And while times have been grim and brought many challenges, I hope with this post I can restore a bit of positivity. Incidentally, 2020 was going to be special for me, even before it became so for everybody. I had just graduated with a doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry in late 2019, and was selected as a candidate for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) short term strategic partnership for academic exchange with Japan. My destination was the group of Professor Masahiro Shirakawa at Kyoto University, and I was scheduled to begin in March, which turned out to be just when the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hit Europe.

Already arriving at Osaka International Airport as one of the few foreign nationals, it was clear that this was not entirely going to be your regular Japan experience. Face masks, hand disinfectant, and social distancing measures were immediately the norm of the day. I cannot stress enough how incredibly thankful I am for the warm welcome I nonetheless received by the fantastic researchers and staff at Kyoto University! In their capable hands, language and cultural barriers quickly began to melt away.

I had expected no less, but it was fascinating to experience first-hand that after flying around the world, and entering a completely different society and culture, I found myself in a scientific community of people with a familiar attitude and interests. Except that all the software, labels of chemical bottles and instruction manuals were entirely in Japanese! Despite some previous warnings about the potentially strict and hierarchical Japanese culture and work ethics, I was fortunate to work in a supportive and collaborative environment to develop my research at Kyoto University. Eventually, due to pandemic countermeasures, laboratory work was reduced, but again, some good came with the bad. The resulting boost in online conferencing was indeed a valuable extension for global co-working, and continues to be so after my return.

This post is now already as crammed as my wonderfully compact Kyoto apartment, so let me reach my personal conclusion from the experience of Kyoto in 2020: looking out for one another, the way that my host group did for me when I arrived in a completely foreign environment in the middle of a global crisis, was a powerful example of openness and mutual goodwill to build strong trust, the basis of collaboration in modern science. If we manage as a scientific community to encourage each other to keep up and appreciate this mindfulness in all aspects of science, we will be able to extend and maintain a sustainable, inclusive and healthy global scientific community. Scientific excellence will be the natural consequence.

About the author

Irina Ritsch studied Interdisciplinary Science at ETH Zurich, where she continued her education with a PhD in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance in the group of Prof. Jeschke. Her focus is on how site-directed spin labelling and pulsed dipolar spectroscopy can be used to (un-) structurally characterise highly dynamic protein domains. In her free time she enjoys ballroom dancing and photography.

Links

https://equipsent.org/

http://www.moleng.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~moleng_01/

https://epr.ethz.ch/

Personal website/blog:
https://irinaritsch.com/