People
For the good of many
Whether it’s the climate, sovereignty over one’s personal data, or international law: these three researchers are active in ways that benefit the general population.
Photo: zVg
Yves Daccord was the co-founder of the Edgelands ‘pop-up’ institute at the University of Harvard in Spring 2021. He is a former Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross. For the next three to four years, he wants to use an unconventional, participatory form of research to discuss the relationship between citizens and their governments in the digital age – a new ‘social contract’. Individuals are giving up some of their rights and freedoms in exchange for more security, but there is no democratic dialogue about this. “#MeToo has fundamentally altered how men and women relate to each other. I am sufficiently convinced that we will see similar movements when it comes to data”, he said to Radio RTS La 1ère.
Photo: zVg
Anne Peters, a professor of international and constitutional law at the Max Planck Society, has been awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit. It was given to her in June 2021 in Bern for her “invaluable contribution to the strengthening of the German-Swiss scientific union and the creation of networks of young scientists”, both in Europe and across the world. Among her achievements are the establishment and mentoring of a trinational Master programme in Basel, Freiburg im Breisgau and Strasbourg. For twelve years, Peters taught at the University of Basel. “I think that the legal culture in Switzerland is truly a mixture of German and French influences”, she said when she was given an honorary doctorate at the University of Lausanne in 2020.
Photo: zVg
Martine Rebetez is a professor of climatology at the University of Neuchâtel and is also affiliated to the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). She is highly frustrated that the Swiss people rejected the proposed CO2 law in the recent referendum. She expressed her opinion to the online newspaper Heidi News: “This offers strong proof of the power of the oil lobby to spread disinformation about science and the interests of the whole population”. Switzerland is no longer a role model with regards to climate policy, she says, and is falling utterly behind when it comes to dealing with greenhouse gases and investing in renewable energies. She is convinced that the referendum has put us back to square one.
