From Nature 448; 117 (12 July 2007):

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich has completed recruitment for its top positions with the appointment of Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach, a chemistry professor there, as the university’s first-ever female rector.

She will work alongside the institute’s new president, Ralph Eichler, who was appointed in May. Eichler, a physicist, is currently director of the Paul Scherrer Institute, a sister research institute. Both will take office on 1 September.

The ETH has lately been rocked by internal disputes that culminated in the resignation of its last president, Ernst Hafen, in November 2006, and formal complaints to the government about perceived unfairness in the allocation of federal university funds.

Wunderli-Allenspach says that this is now a time for consolidation and reconciliation — and, perhaps, for hiring more women. “It is not a hostile place here for women, but we have to make a bigger effort, earlier on, in recruitment,” she says.