New multi-year plan 2025-2028 for the Swiss Academy of Arts and Sciences

With its six units, nine research infrastructures, around 100 commissions and 157 member societies, the Swiss Academies (A+) has developed a new multi-year plan for the period 2025-2028. The variety of objects and topics to be worked on, as well as the broad spectrum of disciplines, methods, knowledge goals and bodies of knowledge, could be bundled in six focal points. With its interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach, the academy network can comprehensively address urgent problems and identify viable, robust solutions.

The unique selling points of the academy network were consistently elaborated: the link between theory and practice; people from science, business and politics who are involved in the militia system; movable hinges between different disciplines as well as between basic research and applied and oriented research.

> More information on the Website of the Swiss Academy of Arts and Sciences (DE)

> Download the pdf file

Core mission and strategic priorities

David Spichiger, SCS
21.07.2022

Call for Members for the Sounding Board for Open Research Data (ORD)

The Swiss Academies are establishing a Sounding Board for Researchers for the implementation of the Action Plan on Open Research Data with their expertise. Apply by 7 August 2022 and help boost Open Science in Switzerland.

In January 2022 swissuniversities, the Swiss Academies for Arts and Sciences, the ETH Board and the Swiss National Science Foundation published the Action Plan for Open Research Data (ORD). Its goal is to change our way of dealing with research data in Switzerland. The Action Plan follows the ORD Strategy adopted in 2021. Each participating institution is responsible for the implementation of several tasks. A Strategy Council with nine members from the participating institutions monitors the strategic management.

The Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences are assigned to establish a permanent Sounding Board of researchers and its administration. The Sounding Board will advise the Strategic Council on the implementation of the Action Plan by bringing in the perspective of Swiss research. We are seeking members who have a keen interest in Open Science and have already gained experience in ORD research practices. Members of the Sounding Board should be affiliated with a Swiss higher education institution and be able to showcase ORD practices within their field of expertise.

 Links

To the call  ❯

More about the National Strategy and Action Plan ORD  ❯

To the Action Plan for ORD  ❯

To the ORD Strategy  ❯

More about Open Science  ❯

More about the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences  ❯

David Spichiger, SCS
13.07.2022

Chemistry Europe Symposium at the ECC 2022 in Lisbon

Chemistry Europe Symposium at the ECC 2022 in Lisbon
Monday, August 29, 9:15 – 12:30, Room #9
https://euchems2022.eu

• We will celebrate the 10^th anniversaries of ChemistryOpen and ChemPlusChem
• Mark the launch of Chemistry-Methods and Analysis & Sensing
• And introduce the redesign of ChemistryViews on a new platform

Join us for five fascinating talks by top scientists

• Célia Fonseca-Guerra, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  ChemPlusChem
• Francesco Ricci, Rome Tor Vergata
  Analysis & Sensing
• Javier García Martínez, Universidad de Alicante, Current President of IUPAC
  ChemistryViews
• Anat Milo, Ben Gurion University
  ChemistryOpen
• Ramón Martínez Mánez, Universitat Politècnica de Valènzia
  Chemistry Methods

Stop by our booth #3 and visit us online on chemistry-europe.org

Website of the EuChemS Chemistry Congress 2022

David Spichiger, SCS
13.07.2022

Chemical Landmark 2021 honors Bruker in Fällanden and ETH Zurich

About 50 years ago Bruker and ETH Zurich joined forces to revolutionize chemical analysis in the materials and life sciences. For their achievements in the development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, their sites are now honored with the Chemical Landmark 2021.

The Bruker Building at Industriestrasse 26 in Fällanden and the ETH Zurich site at Universitätstrasse 22 in Zurich have recently been added to the Swiss Chemical Landmarks’ map of the Swiss Academy. At the awarded sites, the joint team from Bruker and ETH Zurich contributed significantly to the development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR spectroscopy).

Nowadays, NMR spectroscopy is irreplaceable in chemistry, materials science, biology, and medicine as analytical method. It allows the analysis and studies of three-dimensional structures and reactions of atoms, molecules, liquids, and solids. The technique is based on using the spin angular momentum of atomic nuclei as sensitive probes that can detect the smallest changes in the local magnetic field. These changes are expressed in nuclear spin resonances, from which the chemical properties and structure of the analyzed molecules can be deduced.

In 1967, Spectrospin (now Bruker) introduced the first fully transistor-based NMR spectrometer. With the HFX-90, completely new experiments could be performed.

Nobel Prizes for Switzerland

Bruker entered the development of NMR spectroscopes in 1965 with the company Spectrospin. The company then presented the first spectroscope whose electronics were made entirely of transistors, just like today's computers.

In the mid-1970s, the company began a collaboration with Richard Ernst of ETH Zurich. The chemist and the industrial company brought the so-called Fourier transform spectrometer to the market. Compared to standard NMR spectrometers, this method offered better resolution and shorter measurement times and was a milestone in chemical analysis. Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991 for his research on high-resolution NMR methods.

With Kurth Wüthrich, a second ETH chemist joined the team. He achieved another milestone: thanks to 2D NMR spectroscopy, it was now possible to not only determine the chemical composition of substances, but also to measure the distances between the individual atoms. This was a major step forward in analyzing the structure of complex molecules. Wüthrich also received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for his work on the structural determination of proteins.

Cutting-edge research made in the container

In addition to the various technical milestones, the Chemical Landmark jury emphasized the successful long-standing cooperation between industry and academia. The collaboration with Bruker enabled the two scientists to transfer findings from basic research to industry.

For a certain time, Ernst and Wüthrich worked next door to each other in office containers located on the roof of the Laboratory for Physical Chemistry at Universitätstrasse in Zurich. There and at Bruker's headquarters in Fällanden, are now commemorative plaques to honor their pioneering contributions to NMR technology. The plaques were unveiled on July 1, 2022 at a joint ceremony.

SCNAT PF Chemistry, https://chem.scnat.ch/en/chemical_landmarks/chemical_landmark_2021
David Spichiger, SCS
07.07.2022