In recent years, more and more of my time has become absorbed by administrative work for the research council of ETH-Z of which I am presently the president.

A brief visit to Nepal started my insatiable love for Asian art.

Thus, after finishing high school, I started with high expectations and enthusiasm to study chemistry at the famous Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

I became almost immediately fascinated by the possibilities of trying out all conceivable reactions with them, some leading to explosions, others to unbearable poisoning of the air in our house, frightening my parents.

I thus decided to leave the university forever and tried to find an industrial job in the United States.

I recognized that teaching and research institutions vitally depend on the involvement of active scientists also in management functions.

On the theoretical side, I was concerned with stochastic resonance.