Graduation ceremony 2023
It's time to celebrate the new graduates of the Master's degree programmes in physics and high-energy physics from ETH Zurich.
Here they are, the new graduates, surrounded by the happy faces of their family members and friends. In an atmosphere of lightness and cheerfulness, this year's graduates could even forget all the work and effort they put in to reach this goal. Some of them are dressed formally, others chose to wear traditional clothes or to dress more casually.
Director of Studies Professor Niklas Beisert moderates the event with subtle humour. He congratulates the new graduates for choosing ETH and for choosing to study physics, which teaches logical thinking and unlocks a variety of careers. Importantly, he also reminds them to not lose sight of the important things in life – and as if to emphasise his message, the one baby present at the ceremony makes himself heard as Beisert speaks.
The Head of the Department, Professor Andrey Zheludev, comes onto the stage next. He congratulates the new graduates and wishes them successful careers. With a hint of humour, he adds the hope that they become wealthy enough to make a donation to ETH through the external pageETH Foundationcall_made, perhaps in support of prestigious scholarships.
Zheludev is followed by the speaker invited to deliver the keynote address, Professor Thomas Stocker from the climate and environmental division of the Physics Institute of the University of Bern. In analogy with Goethe's Faust, Stocker states that today's scientists must not allow themselves to be conquered by a desire for power, money or fame. Technological progress brings great advantages but at the same time can usher in dangers, if misused. An example is human intervention in natural processes, such as some forms of geoengineering. Scientists have a duty to be alert to these dangers and work while respecting nature, and they must act as a link between science and society to help inform political decisions.
Nadine Nussbaumer, a new graduate with distinction, recalls her years of study amid joys, surprises and peaks of stress by using with skill and humour a scientific jargon to which she had to adapt and which she ended up loving enough to include in her address.
The ceremony is accompanied by Alina Amuri and Marcel Ricklin, who play delightful songs as interludes between speeches. Towards the end of the event, each graduate is called onto the stage to receive the diploma and a gift – an hourglass filled with magnetic powder. Afterwards, it is the turn of the four candidates who received the ETH Medal for outstanding Master's theses – Konstantin Baune, Jost Kellner, Martina Mongillo und Marie Louise Schubert – and of the two candidates who were awarded the Willy Studer Prize for the best student in their graduating cohort – Arman Pour Tak Dost und Beat Andrá Nairz – to walk onto the stage. The ceremony closes with Amuri's singing and a group photo with all new graduates on the steps of the Polyterrasse. The pictures and the photoshoot of each graduate wearing their gown are sponsored by the ETH Alumni Association, and a welcome aperitif with Peruvian specialties is offered by the Department of Physics.
Translated from German by Gaia Donati