From robotics research in Japan to leading Swissnex locations in Boston, Shanghai, and now Osaka: ETH alumnus Felix Moesner has built a career at the intersection of science, innovation and diplomacy. In this interview, he reflects on how ETH shaped his international journey and shares his advice for students and young alumni aspiring to work abroad.

You grew up in Appenzell, but spent time abroad early on, especially in Japan – first at Toshiba and later during your PhD at the University of Tokyo. What drew you there?

I moved to Zurich after high school, where I started studying electrical engineering at ETH. As you can imagine, the courses were very theoretical at the beginning. I always try to find a way to map it to reality to bring what I learned in theory to reality. So I said: Why not do an internship in some trendy field? At that time, robotics were extremely trendy.

I later also did my Master’s and my PhD in this field – this was more than 30 years ago. It was in Japan and in the United States, where robotics were quite advanced. I chose Japan for an internship on intelligent manufacturing involving AI at Toshiba, which opened the doors into the robotics world. Coming back to ETH, I could bring a lot of insights and knowledge back to the labs and was warmly welcomed to the Institute for Robotics at ETH.

How has ETH shaped your life – both professionally and personally?

To have the ETH “rucksack” really opens many doors around the world and you learn to think structurally and strategically. On the other hand, it opens the door to the alumni network. Wherever you go, you find people from ETH – there’s a global network of graduates. This definitely helped me to navigate the world, especially here in Japan. To find a group where you can connect and regularly meet.

What was your biggest takeaway from your studies?

When you study at ETH, you also experience challenges. With these challenges, you learn a technique to find solutions. I think this is the biggest takeaway for me. And as I mentioned before, you have this network of alumni from all over the world. It’s possible to connect with these alumni in a very easy, uncomplicated way.

Which projects at Swissnex in Japan are you most passionate about?

At Swissnex in Japan, we bring talents, knowledge, and ideas together in the field of education, research, innovation, and startups between Switzerland, Japan, and the world. I am especially passionate about one specific project, which was to establish Swissnex in Japan – our doors just opened two and a half years ago.

As you can imagine, this new science consulate was a very big project to realize here in Osaka, which is a very thriving area in Japan, with many Nobel laureates, high-class research institutions, top industrial support, and a lot of places where startups can dock on.

Maybe the main project that really drove the whole team was the Expo 2025 in Osaka. There, we worked very closely with the Swiss Pavilion in fields of academic relations, innovation, and art science. We also had projects organized with ETH during that time – one of them was the Swiss-Japan Energy Days, where we brought both countries together to talk about urgent needs in the field of energy and trends for the future.

Other areas involve startups coming from Switzerland that we introduce to the market in Japan. Or, we had just recently one large exhibition with events, screenings, and workshops as part of our planetary embassy during the whole month of March. Yes, you heard it right: We had a planetary embassy at Swissnex in Japan. We were looking for a format to start a dialogue with the community here. How we see working and living together with the planet and all its species, and how we can build a new form of diplomacy to do that.

What do you find challenging?

The Japanese language is one of the main challenges. However, it gives me the motivation to master it. Now, I’m quite fluent in Japanese and can be super productive in this environment and navigate through the culture in Japan.

What does a typical day in your work look like – or is there even such a thing?

A typical thing we do is trend scouting. We also link the trends back to Switzerland and find ways how to add value. What I most enjoy is trying new things, new formats. I tell my team: The sky’s the limit. So, please try. And if mistakes happen, it is a part of the learning curve. I think this really opens a lot of potential to think out of the box.

What’s your favorite difference between the stations you lived at?

Being with Swissnex, I had the chance to be in four different places – starting in Tokyo, then Boston, then in Shanghai for China, and now back in Osaka for Japan. Looking at the differences, when you go from Japan to Boston: it’s very academic. Being situated between MIT and Harvard, you can really feel it.

Moving from Boston to China, you have the feeling that the people are extremely pragmatic. It’s possible to do projects that are considered impossible. We had a drone race in the embassy, for example.

Moving back to Japan, you see that there are many similarities between Japan and Switzerland. I find it extremely enjoyable to work with startups because they speak the same language of quality & high standards in Switzerland and here in Japan – the level is extremely high. This is what the companies in Japan appreciate when they meet Swiss startups for the first time.

As an ETH alumnus, what still connects you to your alma mater, and what do you value most about being part of the ETH Alumni community?

We have a global Swissnex network, and we host alumni events. Here in Japan, for example, we do this on purpose during the Sakura season, when we have the cherry blossoms, and we invite all the alumni together. It’s a wonderful opportunity to connect, reconnect, and meet new friends.

What advice would you give ETH students or young alumni who aspire to an international career?

I can only say “yokoso”, which means “warmly welcome” in Japanese. If you are a young student or a young alumnus or alumna from ETH, please reach out globally, because, without international reach, the world is extremely small. It broadens your horizon to go internationally. ETH is already one of the most international universities in the world. With the “rucksack” from ETH, you can easily experience the whole world.

So, whenever you’re around abroad, don’t hesitate and reach out to the alumni chapters that are present in all corners of the world. And they’re more than happy to welcome you.

Please click here to watch the video excerpt on the ETH Alumni Instagram account.

This interview transcript was originally published by ETH Alumni on 18 June 2026.

I am Chloé, and while many space paths seem to point towards the USA, NASA or JPL, I felt drawn to Japan, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and a culture I knew would challenge me far beyond science. As part of the first cohort of a new programme, there was no established exchange path yet, so getting here meant searching, asking, hoping and slowly finding my own way.

Then Prof. Louise Harra from PMOD/WRC connected me with Prof. Toshifumi Shimizu at JAXA/ISAS, who accepted me as a student on a SOLAR-C related project studying the Sun and space weather. I was incredibly happy, but also thought: “Okay, now this is actually happening.”

The months before leaving were intense: visa papers, housing, exams and goodbyes all came at once. I chose to live in Tokyo to fully experience the city, knowing it would be overwhelming. I left Switzerland excited and nervous, hoping the path would start to make sense once I walked it.

Arriving in Japan was beautiful, but also very humbling. One of the first big challenges was the language. Japanese is not only a new language for me, but also a completely different writing system. Actually, three writing systems. Before coming here, I had learnt hiragana and katakana, but suddenly I was standing in front of a washing machine covered in kanji, trying to understand how to do laundry with Google Translate and AI. It sounds funny now, and in some way it was, but in that moment I realised how many simple things become difficult when you are far away from home.

My commute to JAXA/ISAS in Sagamihara became a daily lesson in humility, from taking the wrong train between local, (semi) express and rapid express lines to navigating Shinjuku Station like an escape room until, after two weeks, I finally found my way to work.

At JAXA/ISAS, I was welcomed with so much kindness, but being a student surrounded by experienced researchers and scientists can still feel intimidating. In my thesis meetings, several supervisors, postdocs and senior scientists join to discuss my progress, and although I am grateful for their support, I sometimes feel a quiet pressure to prove that I belong there. After one of my first meetings, I felt completely overwhelmed and out of place, unsure of my results, my words and whether I belonged in science at all. I wanted to talk to someone, but with the language barrier and my lab friends speaking Japanese, even sharing that frustration felt difficult. That day, I went home angry at myself, lay in bed and seriously wondered whether I should return to Switzerland.

I think this is one of the most honest parts of my journey here. I am still learning how to take up space in the space world. Not as someone who already knows everything. Not as someone who is always confident. But as someone who is curious, hardworking, sometimes overwhelmed, and still trying.

And then there are the small moments that make everything feel warmer. Every morning, a Japanese student in my lab teaches me a little kanji. We talk about our days, our weekends, our favourite things, and slowly I learn more than just characters. I learn small pieces of language, culture and friendship. In the afternoon, we often have oyatsu, a snack time where people gather, share sweets and talk. Sometimes I learn a new phrase. Sometimes I try to guess the meaning of a kanji. Sometimes I just listen and enjoy being part of it.

My lab also has a tradition of bringing souvenir snacks from trips. Each snack is recorded in a book with its origin and taste. I really love this. It is such a small thing, but it says so much about the group. These small rituals have helped me feel less like a visitor and more like someone who is slowly becoming part of a place.

Not every day feels easy. Even after three months, the language barrier still makes me feel lost, and I still doubt myself sometimes. But almost halfway through my stay, I also see myself changing: finding my way, asking more questions, and learning that feeling unsure does not mean failing.

This journey is about more than my master’s thesis at JAXA/ISAS. It is about finding courage in small moments, following a path that was not clearly laid out for me, and slowly making it mine.