A JOURNEY INSPIRED BY WOMEN IN SCIENCE
“AS A RESEARCHER, I KNOW THERE ARE MANY WOMEN LEADERS IN SCIENCE, HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL. WE NEED TO MAKE THEM VISIBLE.”
I visited twenty-seven scientific institutions across nine countries, mostly biomedical research centers, for my personal purpose. Meeting researchers in places that are meaningful to them, whether inside or outside research facilities, felt like the most authentic way to gain insights into their personal interests alongside their professional dedication. By listening to their stories, I discovered that their passions reach far beyond science, embracing nature, art, history, cultural heritage, and adventurous sports. During my journey, I became convinced that these scientists’ discoveries should be more widely shared with the public. Their work contributes to recent breakthroughs in many fields, such as biomedicine – gene therapy for treating inherited diseases, stem cell therapies for regenerative medicine, and novel cancer treatments – bioengineering, biophysics, neuroscience, and mathematics, among others.
As part of the exhibition in Zurich, I had the honour of portraying two outstanding female scientists from ETH Zurich – each of them characterized by their unique backgrounds, personalities and impressive contributions in the fields of Earth and planetary sciences, among others.
Dr. Ulrike Kastrup is Director of focusTerra, the Earth & Science Discovery Center of ETH Zurich. She began her career in geology and geophysics with a focus on earthquakes. She later extended her field of research to risk management, including floods, forest and bush fires and as Corporate Risk Manager of the Swiss Federal Railways SBB. During her work she increasingly shifted towards fostering the dialogue between science and society. With focusTerra, she now applies exhibitions and other outreach formats to communicate scientific knowledge with a focus on its social relevance. Her aim is to enable people to better understand their natural and human-made environment and to act responsibly within it. The promotion of women in science is a major concern of hers and one of many reasons why she advocates familiarising children with the fascination of the Earth and the natural sciences at an early age.
The other portrait highlights Prof. Dr. Maria Schönbächler, Full Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Deputy Head of the Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology at ETH Zurich. A pioneer in the modern field of isotope cosmochemistry, she developed key techniques to study isotopic variations in meteorites, shedding light on the processes that shaped the early solar system and our planets. Her research focuses on meteorite and extraterrestrial samples returned by space missions. She integrates insights from geochemistry and astrophysics to investigate the origin and the evolution of Earth and the solar system. In 2023, she was part of the team that made the extraordinary discovery of a giant meteorite – an exceptionally large 7.6-kilogram, 4.5-billion-year-old specimen – in Antarctica.
I’m also pleased to present nine additional portraits of female scientists working at leading Swiss institutions, whom I met during my journey. Among them are Sabine Süsstrunk, President of the Swiss Scientific Council (SSC); Susan Gasser, Director of the ISREC Foundation for Cancer Research in Lausanne; Nina Cabezas-Wallscheid, Full Professor in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich; and several scientists from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). These researchers contribute to scientific advancement across diverse STEM fields and play an important role in shaping science policy in Switzerland.
This journey has also highlighted some of the MANY PROFESSIONAL PATHS ONE CAN PURSUE WITH A SCIENCE DEGREE, as well as the vital contributions that individuals can make to advancing knowledge – at every stage of their careers.
It was both a pleasure and an honor to meet each of these extraordinary scientists. Our encounters were not only meaningful but also filled with moments of humor. I was touched by the openness and trust with which they welcomed me. A heartfelt thank you to all the researchers who participated, and to everyone who enthusiastically supported this project and made its realization possible.
Elisabetta Citterio. Author of STEM Passion.
ELISABETTA CITTERIO is a molecular biologist and a photographer. Her studies focus on the molecular mechanisms that maintain genome integ- rity, crucial in fighting cancer. In addition to scientific research, she loves exploring the world through photography, which she sees as a wonder- ful opportunity to connect with people and to reveal the beauty in each of us. She is interested in the transformative potential of individuals and society. She graduated in Biology from the University of Milan and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She directed research projects in international institutes in the Nether- lands and Italy. She is currently an associate professor of Molecular Biol- ogy at Link Campus University in Rome. She is also an associate editor at Life Science Editors in the USA and a visiting researcher at the Universi- ty of Milano-Bicocca in Milan. She studied photography at Fotogram in Amsterdam and Il Diaframma – Donna Fotografa in Milan.