Welcome Mayor Philipp Wilhelm to the Governing Board of Science City Davos

 Philipp Wilhelm  joined the Governing Board of Science City Davos at the beginning of 2021. We asked him for a short news after joining us. Here is the statement form our new Governing Board member.

I am very happy to be a board member of the Society, Science City Davos since the beginning of 2021 and for this reason also part of a very valuable science network in Davos. Since 2021 I am the mayor of Davos, which motivates me daily to work for Davos and it's population. In Monstein I enjoyed a beautiful childhood in the magnificent mountain world, where I attended kindergarten and elementary school. Afterwards I attended the Swiss Alpine Secondary School Davos (SAMD) and completed my matura there. This opened the doors to the ETH in Zurich for me (ETHZ), where I studied architecture and graduated with a Master's degree in architecture in 2015. As mayor of Davos I am involved as a member of the Board of Trustees of the SFI Research Institute, the E.L. Kirchner Foundation, the Davos Festival Foundation, the Davos Sports High School Foundation and I am a member of the Board of Directors of Destination Davos Klosters.  

In my free time I like to play the guitar, run on the wonderful trails around Davos and have also discovered cross-country skiing in the Corona pandemic winter. Science City Davos is a very important network for the region and combines an incredible variety of research, innovation, education and health topics. I am very happy to be part of this board in the future to strengthen Davos.

Welcome Prof Harra to the Governing Board of Science City Davos

Prof Louise Harra speaks to us here of her new appointments and some questions she receives in Davos. As the new president of Science City Davos, I am extremely happy as my first role to welcome Professor Harra to our team and our community. The Governing Board unanimously welcomed her nomination as soon as I started this January. Prof RG Richards 09/03/2021.

I arrived in Davos in June 2019 to take up the directorship at PMOD/WRC and professorship at the Institute of Particle Physics and Astronomy at the department of physics in ETH-Zürich. Before that I was a physics professor at UCL-Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UCL-MSSL) in the UK. The main focus of UCL-MSSL is to design and develop instruments on space science missions. My area of research is understanding activity on our Sun, and in order to do that I have been involved in several space missions during my career. These missions are all international projects, with collaborations across many countries in Europe, Japan and USA. The most recent one launched (in February 2020) is the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission. I was involved in one of the instruments for nearly 2 decades before launch, and through that instrument I came to know and work with PMOD/WRC.

I didn’t have a career plan to become involved in space missions when I was at school – but growing up in Northern Ireland I was lucky enough to have a Planetarium close by. School trips to the planetarium inspired us about to look and wonder at the sky. The importance of communicating science in this way is without a doubt the best way to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Simply making everyone aware of the excitement of scientific discovery is something you can enjoy your whole life even if it isn’t your professional job.

Questions most frequently asked to me when we moved here are:

‘Do you ski?’ The answer was no – but this year I have had a couple of lessons to start me off on the slopes (thanks to Davos ski school and a very patient teacher!).

‘Do you speak German?’ The answer again was no – I only studied French at school back in Northern Ireland. But have been taking German lessons since we arrived and hope to develop language skills while we are here.

‘Is Davos too quiet?’ The answer is also no – my previous place of work was in the countryside south of London, chosen partly for the clean air and lack of vibration for the delicate instruments built there. In the same way, Davos is ideal for the instruments built, calibrated and operated at PMOD/WRC. They are outside the building and on the roof – and the regular clear sunny days that Davos enjoys is important for their operation. Indeed, instruments from Davos are located all around the world, monitoring and aiming to understand the Earth’s climate. So, with my husband, we lived in a cottage in a small village with only one pub! Now we live in Davos, which has many more pubs and restaurants – and of course beautiful mountains!

The future for PMOD/WRC is bright. We have a new strengthening link to ETH-Zürich through my joint appointment, and plans are underway for new instrument development both on the ground and space – all focused on improving our understand of the Sun’s activity, and the changes to the Earth’s climate. The tasks we are undertaking are listed here:

- World Radiation Center: serve as an international calibration center for meteorological radiation instruments and develop radiation instruments for use on the ground and in space.

-  Space projects: develop instruments for imaging and radiation measurements of the Sun.

-  Technology: underpin the design and development of the instruments for ground and space.

-  Climate science: research the Earth’s ozone layer and climate evolution

-  Solar Science: research the causes of solar activity.

-  Teaching: carry out teaching at different levels at ETH-Zürich. 

Prof. Louise Harra, member of the Science City Governing Board. 

Director Physikalisch-Meteorologische Observatorium Davos/World Radiation Center (PMOD/WRC)

Dorfstrasse 33, CH-7260 Davos Dorf