The Federal Council appointed Beate Jessel as the new director of the Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) on 4 June 2021. She will assume her role on 1 September. The 59-year-old currently serves as president of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in Bonn. 

Personnel matters were among the issues addressed by the ETH Board at its meeting on 19/20 May. It appointed Professor Günther Dissertori as the new Rector of ETH Zurich, Professors Thomas J. Schmidt and Mike Seidel as members of the PSI Board of Directors and Cornelia Ritz Bossicard as the new Chair of the ETH Board’s Audit Committee.

The ETH Board appointed five women and ten men as professors and awarded the title of professor to one individual. It also took note of the resignations of seven professors and thanked them for their services. In the last 12 months, the ETH Board has made a total of 17 new appointments for women and 29 for men; the proportion of women among these new appointments amounts to 37%.

swissuniversities, the Swiss National Science Foundation and Innosuisse have jointly drawn up a Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity under the auspices of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. It takes into account new developments in science, facilitates cooperation across institutional borders and strengthens quality assurance in research.