«Ich betrachte das Chapter Norge Alumni als ein Netzwerk für den Austausch von Ideen»

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Can you tell us something about the beginning of the Chapter Norge and your involvement at the outset?

The first Norwegians came to ETH back in the 1870s and the first three women in Norway to obtain a PhD did so in Zurich at the end of the 19th century, so Norwegian students have a long history of association with ETH.

You could say that the ETHZ students were somewhat late in getting their more organised alumni activities started. In 1982, the "ethz-ler im oel" association was established in Oslo. Initially the association focused on raising awareness of the technologies linked to the oil and gas industry in the North Sea through lectures at ETH and in Norway. It also provided an opportunity for ETH friends to meet and remember the great times we had in Zurich.

In 2006, the association decided to expand its activities and established itself as ETHZ Alumni Norway. I was then elected president of Chapter Norge in 2011. Our first task was really to "find" alumni. Given that there were 135 Norwegian students at ETH at the end of the 1960s, we had our work cut out, for example, one task was updating postal addresses with e-mail addresses. We also increased the number of social and lecture activities and established our "Stamm" or regular meet-up at Frognerseteren, run by our Swiss friend Chef Walter.

What were the highlights of your time as president of the Chapter Norge Alumni and what is your vision for the Chapter?

Firstly, what has impressed me is the change ETHZ has gone through. And as a result climbing up on the world university ranking with the great work going on at the university and widely reported on the Alumni website an in the "ETH-Alumni update".

Secondly, I established contact with the Swiss Embassy in Oslo, and we are grateful for their interest in and support for cooperation between Switzerland and Norway in terms of education and business development. We have steadily increased the size of our group and now have 87 members.
I very much enjoy our annual meeting at Frognerseteren where Chef Walter serves his special Chäs Fondue "mit allen Schikanen" including Fendant Wine and Kirsch.
I also established regular presentations on various topics and now, thanks to covid, excellent presentations from ETH are organised on Teams.

In terms of my vision, I see Alumni Chapter Norge as a network for exchanging ideas between R&D projects, companies and people in Switzerland and Norway. And I believe we should have an important role in making ETHZ better known up here close to the North Pole so that bright young future Norwegian stars can consider studying at our favourite university.

Last spring the MAS ETH MTEC group visited Norway, what was the highlight of this trip for you?

I was delighted to see how the participants enjoyed taking part in the program and appreciating being back in a post-pandemic environment.
It was also great that people (no names mentioned) put so much energy into finding the best companies to visit with regards to "Nordic Economies in Transition: From Traditional to Emerging Industries".
The visit to the Oslo Science Park provided the participants with fantastic insight into the importance of a platform, enabling entrepreneurs and researchers to come together and share ideas.

Click here for more information about the visit:
Heading North – MAS in Management, Technology, and Economics | ETH Zurich