100 Notable alumni of
University of Zurich
Updated:
The University of Zurich is 205th in the world, 72nd in Europe, and 2nd in Switzerland by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Zurich sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 4 individuals affiliated with the University of Zurich won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine.
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Albert Einstein
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- In 1905 graduated with doctorate in physics
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who is widely held to be one of the greatest and most influential scientists of all time. Best known for developing the theory of relativity, Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics, and was thus a central figure in the revolutionary reshaping of the scientific understanding of nature that modern physics accomplished in the first decades of the twentieth century. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc, which arises from relativity theory, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory. His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. In a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World, Einstein was ranked the greatest physicist of all time. His intellectual achievements and originality have made the word Einstein broadly synonymous with genius.
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Rosa Luxemburg
- Occupations
- revolutionaryphilosopherjournalisteconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, orthodox Marxist, and anti-war activist. She became a key figure of the revolutionary socialist movements of Poland and Germany during the late 19th and early 20th century.
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Mileva Marić
- Occupations
- teacher
- Biography
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Mileva Marić, sometimes called Mileva Marić-Einstein (Милева Марић-Ајнштајн, Mileva Marić-Ajnštajn), was a Serbian physicist, mathematician, and the first wife of Albert Einstein from 1903 to 1919. She was the only woman among Einstein's fellow students at Zürich Polytechnic. She was Marić and Einstein were study colleagues and lovers, and had a daughter Lieserl in 1902, who likely died of scarlet fever at one and a half years old. They later had two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard.
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Jürgen Habermas
- Occupations
- university teachersociologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Jürgen Habermas is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere.
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Wilhelm Röntgen
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- physicistengineerresearcherprofessor
- Biography
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Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German mechanical engineer and physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. In honour of Röntgen's accomplishments, in 2004 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named element 111, roentgenium, a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes, after him. The unit of measurement roentgen was also named after him.
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Max Born
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied in 1903-1903
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacherphysicisttheoretical physicistnon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Max Born FRS, FRSE was a German-British physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 1930s. Born was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics for his "fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially in the statistical interpretation of the wave function".
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Albert Hofmann
- Occupations
- chemistnon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Albert Hofmann was a Swiss chemist known for being the first to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann's team also isolated, named and synthesized the principal psychedelic mushroom compounds psilocybin and psilocin. He authored more than 100 scientific articles and numerous books, including LSD: Mein Sorgenkind (LSD: My Problem Child). In 2007, he shared first place with Tim Berners-Lee on a list of the 100 greatest living geniuses published by The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
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Maximilian Schell
- Occupations
- autobiographeractordirectorfilm directorstage actor
- Biography
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Maximilian Schell was a Swiss actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film Judgment at Nuremberg, his second acting role in Hollywood. Born in Austria, his parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he was still a child, his family fled to Switzerland in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zürich. After World War II ended, Schell took up acting and directing full-time. He appeared in numerous German films, often anti-war, before moving to Hollywood.
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Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
- Occupations
- pedagogue
- Biography
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Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach.
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Friedrich Dürrenmatt
- Occupations
- writerscreenwriterpoetpainterplaywright
- Biography
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Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophical crime novels, and macabre satire. Dürrenmatt was a member of the Gruppe Olten, a group of left-wing Swiss writers who convened regularly at a restaurant in the city of Olten.
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Alexandra Kollontai
- Occupations
- women's rights activistwriterPeople's Commissarrevolutionarydiplomat
- Biography
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Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai was a Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist theoretician. Serving as the People's Commissar for Welfare in Vladimir Lenin's government in 1917–1918, she was a highly prominent woman within the Bolshevik party. She was the first woman to be a cabinet minister, and the first woman ambassador.
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Martin Buber
- Occupations
- translatorphilosopherwriterzionistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Martin Buber was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship. Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family of observant Jews, but broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular studies in philosophy. He produced writings about Zionism and worked with various bodies within the Zionist movement extensively over a nearly 50-year period spanning his time in Europe and the Near East. In 1923, Buber wrote his famous essay on existence, Ich und Du (later translated into English as I and Thou), and in 1925, he began translating the Hebrew Bible into the German language reflecting the patterns of the Hebrew language.
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Hazel Brugger
- Occupations
- cabaret performerYouTuberopinion journalistactorpodcaster
- Biography
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Allison Hazel Brugger is a Swiss-American slam poet, comedian, cabaret artist and television presenter.
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Max Frisch
- Occupations
- screenwriterbiographerpoetarchitectplaywright
- Biography
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Max Rudolf Frisch was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity, individuality, responsibility, morality, and political commitment. The use of irony is a significant feature of his post-war output. Frisch was one of the founders of Gruppe Olten. He was awarded the 1965 Jerusalem Prize, the 1973 Grand Schiller Prize, and the 1986 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
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Hashim Thaçi
- Years
- 1968-.. (age 56)
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied study of history
- Occupations
- military personnelinternational forum participantpoliticiansoldier
- Biography
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Hashim Thaçi is a Kosovar Albanian politician who was the president of Kosovo from April 2016 until his resignation on 5 November 2020 to face a war crimes tribunal. He was the first prime minister of Kosovo and the Foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the new cabinet led by Isa Mustafa, which assumed office on 12 December 2014.
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Sabina Spielrein
- Occupations
- psychiatristpsychoanalystphysicianessayist
- Biography
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Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein was a Russian physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts. She was in succession the patient, then student, then colleague of Carl Gustav Jung, with whom she had an intimate relationship during 1908–1910, as is documented in their correspondence from the time and her diaries. She also met, corresponded, and had a collegial relationship with Sigmund Freud. She worked with and psychoanalysed Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget. She worked as a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, teacher and paediatrician in Switzerland and Russia. In a thirty-year professional career, she published over 35 papers in three languages (German, French and Russian), covering psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, psycholinguistics and educational psychology. Among her works in the field of psychoanalysis is the essay titled "Destruction as the Cause of Coming Into Being", written in German in 1912.
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Shankar Dayal Sharma
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Shankar Dayal Sharma was an Indian lawyer and politician from the state of Madhya Pradesh who served as the ninth president of India, from 1992 to 1997.
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Gabriel Narutowicz
- Occupations
- diplomatpoliticianuniversity teachercivil engineerforeign minister
- Biography
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Gabriel Józef Narutowicz was a Polish professor of hydroelectric engineering and politician who served as the first President of Poland from 11 December 1922 until his assassination on 16 December, five days after assuming office. He previously served as the Minister of Public Works from 1920 to 1922 and briefly as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1922. A renowned engineer and politically independent, Narutowicz was the first elected head of state following Poland's regained sovereignty from partitioning powers.
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Theodor Mommsen
- Occupations
- university teachernumismatistpoliticianhistoriangermanist
- Biography
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Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research. He received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Literature for his historical writings, including The History of Rome, after having been nominated by 18 members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He was also a prominent German politician, as a member of the Prussian and German parliaments. His works on Roman law and on the law of obligations had a significant impact on the German civil code.
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Julius Lothar Meyer
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied in 1851-1853
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Julius Lothar Meyer was a German chemist. He was one of the pioneers in developing the earliest versions of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (his chief rival) and he had both worked with Robert Bunsen. Meyer never used his first given name and was known throughout his life simply as Lothar Meyer.
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Franz, Duke of Bavaria
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied business administration
- Occupations
- politicianentrepreneurart collector
- Biography
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Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern, commonly known by the courtesy title Duke of Bavaria, is the head of the House of Wittelsbach, the former ruling family of the Kingdom of Bavaria. His great-grandfather King Ludwig III was the last ruling monarch of Bavaria, being deposed in 1918.
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Jörg Kachelmann
- Occupations
- non-fiction writermeteorologisttelevision presenterweather presenterjournalist
- Biography
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Jörg Andreas Kachelmann is a Swiss presenter, journalist and entrepreneur in the meteorological field.
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Anatoly Lunacharsky
- Occupations
- writeractordiplomatjournalistpolitician
- Biography
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Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's Commissar (Narkompros) responsible for the Ministry of Education as well as an active playwright, critic, essayist, and journalist throughout his career.
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Hermann Rorschach
- Occupations
- psychoanalystpsychiatrist
- Biography
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Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His education in art helped to spur the development of a set of inkblots that were used experimentally to measure various unconscious parts of the subject's personality. His method has come to be referred to as the Rorschach test, iterations of which have continued to be used over the years to help identify personality, psychotic, and neurological disorders. Rorschach continued to refine the test until his premature death at age 37.
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Ignazio Cassis
- Occupations
- physicianpoliticianinternational forum participant
- Biography
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Ignazio Daniele Giovanni Cassis is a Swiss physician and politician who has been a Member of the Swiss Federal Council since 1 November 2017. A member of FDP.The Liberals, Cassis was elected to the Federal Council on 20 September 2017 following the resignation of Didier Burkhalter. He has headed the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs since he took office. On 8 December 2021, Cassis was elected President of the Swiss Confederation for 2022.
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Doris Leuthard
- Occupations
- politicianinternational forum participantlawyer
- Biography
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Doris Leuthard is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2006 to 2018. A member of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), she was elected as President of the Swiss Confederation for 2010 and 2017. Leuthard headed the Federal Department of Economic Affairs until 2010, when she became head of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications. As of 19 December 2019 she is a member of the board of the Kofi Annan Foundation and Stadler Rail.
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Eugen Bleuler
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicianpsychiatrist
- Biography
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Paul Eugen Bleuler was a Swiss psychiatrist and humanist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", "schizoid", "autism", depth psychology and what Sigmund Freud called "Bleuler's happily chosen term ambivalence".
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Frank Wedekind
- Occupations
- stage actorplaywrightwriterscreenwriteractor
- Biography
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Benjamin Franklin Wedekind was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the development of epic theatre.
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Louis Agassiz
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied in 1824-1826
- Occupations
- philosopherglaciologistclimatologistpaleontologistnaturalist
- Biography
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Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
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Ella Rumpf
- Occupations
- film actor
- Biography
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Ella Rumpf is a Swiss actress, best known for her role as Alexia in the 2016 horror drama film Raw, which won the Sutherland Trophy at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival. Her other notable roles include, critical acclaimed Tiger in Tiger Girl (2017) and Hanna in The Divine Order (2017), the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.
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Hans Urs von Balthasar
- Occupations
- Catholic priesttranslatorwritertheologian
- Biography
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Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered an important Catholic theologian of the 20th century. Pope John Paul II announced his choice of Balthasar to become a cardinal, but he died shortly before the consistory. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) said in his funeral oration for Balthasar that "he is right in what he teaches of the faith" and that he "points the way to the sources of living water".
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Christoph Blocher
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Graduated with Doctor of Laws
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Christoph Wolfram Blocher is a Swiss industrialist and politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2004 to 2007. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he headed the Federal Department of Justice and Police. As an industrialist, he became wealthy as CEO and majority shareholder in the EMS-Chemie corporation, now run by his daughter, Magdalena Martullo-Blocher.
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Max von Laue
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistcrystallographer
- Biography
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Max Theodor Felix von Laue was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals.
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Annemarie Schwarzenbach
- Occupations
- photographertravelerwriterexplorerphilosopher
- Biography
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Annemarie Minna Renée Schwarzenbach was a Swiss writer, journalist and photographer. Her bisexual mother brought her up in a masculine style, and her androgynous image suited the bohemian Berlin society of the time, in which she indulged enthusiastically. Her anti-fascist campaigning forced her into exile, where she became close to the family of novelist Thomas Mann. She would live much of her life abroad as a photo-journalist, embarking on many lesbian relationships, and experiencing a growing morphine addiction. In America, the young Carson McCullers was infatuated with Schwarzenbach, to whom she dedicated Reflections in a Golden Eye. Schwarzenbach reported on the early events of World War II, but died of a head injury, following a fall.
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Richard von Krafft-Ebing
- Occupations
- psychiatristwriterauthoruniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work Psychopathia Sexualis (1886).
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Avetik Isahakyan
- Occupations
- public figureprose writerpoet
- Biography
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Avetik Sahaki Isahakyan was a prominent Armenian lyric poet, writer and public activist.
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Yoko Tawada
- Occupations
- translatorwriterliterary scholarplaywrightgermanist
- Biography
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Yōko Tawada is a Japanese writer currently living in Berlin, Germany. She writes in both Japanese and German. Tawada has won numerous literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, the Noma Literary Prize, the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the Goethe Medal, the Kleist Prize, and a National Book Award.
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Carl von Linde
- Occupations
- physicistengineeruniversity teacherentrepreneur
- Biography
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Carl Paul Gottfried von Linde was a German scientist, engineer, and businessman. He discovered a refrigeration cycle and invented the first industrial-scale air separation and gas liquefaction processes, which led to the first reliable and efficient compressed-ammonia refrigerator in 1876. These breakthroughs laid the backbone for the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics that was awarded to Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Linde was a member of scientific and engineering associations, including being on the board of trustees of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Linde was also the founder of what is now known as Linde plc but formerly known (variously) as the Linde division of Union Carbide, Linde, Linde Air Products, Praxair, and others. Linde is the world's largest producer of industrial gases and ushered in the creation of the global supply chain for industrial gases. He was knighted in 1897 as Ritter von Linde.
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Roger Köppel
- Occupations
- journalistmedia proprietorinternational forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Roger Jürg Köppel is a Swiss journalist, entrepreneur, publicist and politician who currently serves as a member of the National Council for the Swiss People's Party since 2015. Concurrently he is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Die Weltwoche, a weekly magazine. He previously worked as editor-in-chief for Die Welt from 2004 and 2006.
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Walther Nernst
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied in 1883
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Walther Hermann Nernst was a German physicist and physical chemist known for his work in thermodynamics, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and solid-state physics. His formulation of the Nernst heat theorem helped pave the way for the third law of thermodynamics, for which he won the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is also known for developing the Nernst equation in 1887.
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Alfred Werner
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Alfred Werner was a Swiss chemist who was a student at ETH Zurich and a professor at the University of Zurich. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1913 for proposing the octahedral configuration of transition metal complexes. Werner developed the basis for modern coordination chemistry. He was the first inorganic chemist to win the Nobel Prize, and the only one prior to 1973.
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Chen Yinque
- Occupations
- linguisthistorian
- Biography
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Chen Yinke, or Chen Yinque, was a Chinese historian, linguist, orientalist, politician, and writer. He was a fellow of Academia Sinica, considered one of the most original and creative historians in 20th century China. His representative works are Draft essays on the origins of Sui and Tang institutions (隋唐制度淵源略論稿), Draft outline of Tang political history (唐代政治史述論稿), and An Alternative Biography of Liu Rushi (柳如是別傳).
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Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich
- Occupations
- translatorwriterrevolutionaryhistorianjournalist
- Biography
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Vladimir Dmitriyevich Bonch-Bruyevich was a Soviet politician, revolutionary, historian, writer and Old Bolshevik. He was Vladimir Lenin's personal secretary.
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Alfred Escher
- Occupations
- bankerpoliticianentrepreneur
- Biography
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Johann Heinrich Alfred Escher vom Glas, also known as Alfred Escher, was a Swiss politician, business leader and railway pioneer. Thanks to his numerous political posts and his significant role in the foundation and management of the Swiss Northeastern Railway, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Credit Suisse, Swiss Life and the Gotthard Railway, Escher had an unmatched influence on Switzerland's political and economic development in the 19th century. Escher served on the Swiss National Council from 1848 to 1882 for the Free Radical Liberals.
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Marie-Louise von Franz
- Occupations
- psychologist
- Biography
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Marie-Louise von Franz was a Swiss Jungian psychologist and scholar, known for her psychological interpretations of fairy tales and of alchemical manuscripts.
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Vera Figner
- Occupations
- memoiristwriterpoliticianbiographerpolitical activist
- Biography
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Vera Nikolayevna Figner Filippova was a Russian revolutionary and political activist.
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Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
- Occupations
- politicianinternational forum participantlawyer
- Biography
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Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2008 to 2015. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC) until 2008, she was then a member of the splinter Conservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD) until 2021, when that party merged into The Centre. Widmer-Schlumpf was the head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police from 2008 to 2010, when she became head of the Federal Department of Finance. She served as President of the Swiss Confederation in 2012.
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Marcel Grossmann
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
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Marcel Grossmann was a Swiss mathematician and a friend and classmate of Albert Einstein. Grossmann was a member of an old Swiss family from Zürich. His father managed a textile factory. He became a Professor of Mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic School in Zürich, today the ETH Zurich, specializing in descriptive geometry.
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Ludwig Binswanger
- Occupations
- existential therapistpsychiatristessayist
- Biography
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Ludwig Binswanger was a Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology. His parents were Robert Johann Binswanger (1850–1910) and Bertha Hasenclever (1847–1896). Robert's German-Jewish father Ludwig "Elieser" Binswanger (1820–1880) was founder, in 1857, of the Bellevue Sanatorium in Kreuzlingen. Robert's brother Otto Binswanger (1852–1929) was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Jena.
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Ricarda Huch
- Occupations
- historiannovelistplaywrightwriterphilosopher
- Biography
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Ricarda Huch was a pioneering German intellectual. Trained as a historian, and the author of many works of European history, she also wrote novels, poems, and a play. Asteroid 879 Ricarda is named in her honour.
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Michele Besso
- Occupations
- engineermathematician
- Biography
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Michele Angelo Besso was a Swiss-Italian engineer best known for working closely with Albert Einstein.
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Carl Spitteler
- Occupations
- theologianwriterpoet
- Biography
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Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler was a Swiss poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1919 "in special appreciation of his epic Olympian Spring". His work includes both pessimistic and heroic poems.
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Maximilian Bircher-Benner
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied in 1891
- Occupations
- dietitianphysician
- Biography
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Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, M.D. was a Swiss physician and a pioneer nutritionist credited for popularizing muesli and raw food vegetarianism.
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Anna Kuliscioff
- Occupations
- journalistphysicianpoliticianeditor
- Biography
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Anna Kuliscioff was a Russian-born Italian revolutionary, a prominent feminist, an anarchist influenced by Mikhail Bakunin, and eventually a Marxist socialist militant. She was mainly active in Italy, where she was one of the first women to graduate in medicine.
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Peter Stamm
- Occupations
- journalistplaywrightwriteraccountant
- Biography
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Peter Stamm is a Swiss writer. His prize-winning books have been translated into more than thirty languages. For his entire body of work and his accomplishments in fiction, he was short-listed for the International Booker Prize in 2013, and in 2014 he won the prestigious Friedrich Hölderlin Prize.
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Julian Marchlewski
- Occupations
- editorpolitician
- Biography
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Julian Baltazar Józef Marchlewski was a Polish communist politician, revolutionary activist and publicist who served as chairman of the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee. He was also known under the aliases Karski and Kujawiak.
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Kim de l’Horizon
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- In 2012 studied film studies, German studies, and theatre studies
- Occupations
- playwrightwriter
- Biography
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Kim de l'Horizon is a Swiss nonbinary novelist, playwright and thespian. In 2022, they won the German Book Prize and the Swiss Book Prize for their debut novel Blutbuch.
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Carl Hahn
- Occupations
- businesspersonmanageruniversity teacherentrepreneur
- Biography
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Carl Horst Hahn was a German businessman and head of the Volkswagen Group from 1982 to 1993. He served as the chairman of the board of management of the parent company, Volkswagen AG (formerly Volkswagenwerk AG). During his tenure, the group's car production increased from two million units in 1982 to 3.5 million a decade later.
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Alfred Kleiner
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Alfred Kleiner was a Swiss physicist and Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Zurich. He was Albert Einstein's doctoral advisor or Doktorvater. Initially Einstein's advisor was Heinrich F. Weber. However, they had a major falling out, and Einstein chose to switch to Kleiner.
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Josef Müller-Brockmann
- Occupations
- graphic designertypographerteacher
- Biography
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Josef Müller-Brockmann was a Swiss graphic designer, author, and educator, he was a Principal at Muller-Brockmann & Co. design firm. He was a pioneer of the International Typographic Style. One of the main masters of Swiss design. Müller-Brockmann is recognized for his simple designs and his clean use of typography, shapes and colors which inspire many graphic designers in the 21st century.
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Lars Ahlfors
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied in 1928-1929
- Occupations
- university teachermathematician
- Biography
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Lars Valerian Ahlfors was a Finnish mathematician, remembered for his work in the field of Riemann surfaces and his textbook on complex analysis.
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Walter Rudolf Hess
- Occupations
- biologistsurgeonuniversity teacherophthalmologistneuroscientist
- Biography
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Walter Rudolf Hess was a Swiss physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 for mapping the areas of the brain involved in the control of internal organs. He shared the prize with Egas Moniz.
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Šatrijos Ragana
- Occupations
- translatorwriterteacher
- Biography
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Šatrijos Ragana was the pen name of Marija Pečkauskaitė (Polish: Maria Pieczkowska; March 8, 1877 – July 24, 1930), a Lithuanian humanist and romantic writer and educator. Her most successful works are Sename dvare (In the Old Estate, 1922) and Irkos tragedija (Tragedy of Irka).
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Franz Hohler
- Occupations
- Liedermachermusiciancabaret performerwriterscreenwriter
- Biography
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Franz Hohler is a Swiss author and cabaret performer based in Zürich.
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Eugen Gerstenmaier
- Occupations
- evangelical theologianpoliticianresistance fightertheologian
- Biography
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Eugen Karl Albrecht Gerstenmaier was a German Evangelical theologian, resistance fighter in the Third Reich, and a CDU politician. From 1954 to 1969, he served as the third president of the Bundestag. With a tenure of over 14 years, he is, as yet, the longest serving presiding officer of the German parliament and also the only person to preside over the Bundestag during four legislative periods (the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Bundestag).
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Eligio Ayala
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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José Eligio Ayala was President of Paraguay from 12 April 1923 to 17 March 1924 and again from 15 August 1924 until 15 August 1928. He was a member of the Liberal Party.
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Daniel Risch
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Daniel Risch is a politician from Liechtenstein who has served as the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein since 2021. He was previously Deputy Prime Minister 2017 to 2021, under the government of Adrian Hasler.
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Auguste Forel
- Occupations
- temperance workerneurologistphilosophernon-fiction writeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Auguste-Henri Forel was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. He is considered a co-founder of the neuron theory. Forel is also known for his early contributions to sexology and psychology. From 1978 until 2000 Forel's image appeared on the 1000 Swiss franc banknote.
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John Bates Clark
- Occupations
- university teacherwritereconomist
- Biography
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John Bates Clark was an American neoclassical economist. He was one of the pioneers of the marginalist revolution and opponent to the Institutionalist school of economics, and spent most of his career as professor at Columbia University.
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Hovannes Adamian
- Occupations
- engineerinventor
- Biography
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Hovhannes Abgari Adamian (5 February 1879 – 12 September 1932) was an Armenian engineer, an author of more than 20 inventions. The first experimental color television was shown in London in 1928 based on Adamian's tricolor principle, and he is recognized as one of the founders of color television.
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Charles Édouard Guillaume
- Occupations
- researcherphysicist
- Biography
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Charles Édouard Guillaume was a Swiss physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1920 in recognition of the service he had rendered to precision measurements in physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys. In 1919, he gave the fifth Guthrie Lecture at the Institute of Physics in London with the title "The Anomaly of the Nickel-Steels".
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Moritz Leuenberger
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- 1966-1970 studied legal science
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Moritz Leuenberger is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1995 to 2010. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS), he was President of the Swiss Confederation in 2001 and 2006. Leuenberger headed the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications for the whole of his tenure as a Federal Councillor.
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Alfred Ploetz
- Occupations
- physicianbiologist
- Biography
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Alfred Ploetz was a German physician, biologist, Social Darwinist, and eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene (Rassenhygiene), a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany.
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Richard Avenarius
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterphilosopher
- Biography
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Richard Ludwig Heinrich Avenarius was a German-Swiss philosopher. He formulated the radical positivist doctrine of "empirical criticism" or empirio-criticism.
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Urs Rohner
- Occupations
- lawyerbank managerinternational forum participantbusiness executive
- Biography
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Urs Rohner is a Swiss lawyer, businessman and banker. He is the former CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media and former chairman of Swiss bank Credit Suisse. After his 10 year tenure the share price lost 75% of its value leaving the bank engulfed in various scandals and subsequently apologizing for his poor performance at the last shareholder meeting. He is considered one of the worst chairmen in Swiss banking.
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Rolf M. Zinkernagel
- Occupations
- physicianuniversity teacherimmunologistprofessor
- Biography
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Rolf Martin Zinkernagel AC is a professor of experimental immunology at the University of Zurich. Along with Peter C. Doherty, he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells.
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Adolf Muschg
- Occupations
- prose writerwriterliterary criticpoethigh school teacher
- Biography
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Adolf Muschg is a Swiss writer and professor of literature. Muschg was a member of the Gruppe Olten.
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Adolf Meyer
- Occupations
- university teacherpsychiatrist
- Biography
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Adolf Meyer was a Swiss-born psychiatrist who rose to prominence as the first psychiatrist-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital (1910-1941). He was president of the American Psychiatric Association in 1927–28 and was one of the most influential figures in psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century. His focus on collecting detailed case histories on patients was one of the most prominent of his contributions. He oversaw the building and development of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in April 1913, making sure it was suitable for scientific research, training and treatment. Meyer's work at the Phipps Clinic is possibly the most significant aspect of his career.
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Tiana Angelina Moser
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Tiana Angelina Moser is an educator and politician of the Green Liberal Party (GLP). Since 2007 she is a member of the National Council and since 2011 she is the leader of the parties parliamentarian group.
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Mário Schenberg
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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Mário Schenberg was a Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer.
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Paul Karrer
- Occupations
- biochemistuniversity teacherchemist
- Biography
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Professor Paul Karrer FRS FRSE FCS was a Swiss organic chemist best known for his research on vitamins. He and Norman Haworth won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1937.
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Anita Augspurg
- Occupations
- women's rights activistauthoractorjuristsuffragette
- Biography
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Anita Theodora Johanna Sophie Augspurg was a German jurist, actress, writer, activist of the radical feminist movement and a pacifist.
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Frigyes Riesz
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- Studied in 1897-1899
- Occupations
- university teachermathematician
- Biography
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Frigyes Riesz was a Hungarian mathematician who made fundamental contributions to functional analysis, as did his younger brother Marcel Riesz.
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Carl Nägeli
- Occupations
- biologistmycologistuniversity teacherbotanist
- Biography
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Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli was a Swiss botanist. He studied cell division and pollination but became known as the man who discouraged Gregor Mendel from further work on genetics. He rejected natural selection as a mechanism of evolution, favouring orthogenesis driven by a supposed "inner perfecting principle".
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Marco Borradori
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Marco Borradori was a Swiss lawyer and politician from Sorengo, near Lugano in the canton of Ticino.
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Dominique Rinderknecht
- Occupations
- beauty pageant contestantmodel
- Biography
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Dominique Rinderknecht is a Swiss model, tv host and beauty pageant titleholder who won the title of Miss Switzerland 2013 and represented her country at the Miss Universe 2013 pageant.
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Rolf Liebermann
- Occupations
- conductorcomposerscreenwriteruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Rolf Liebermann, was a Swiss composer and music administrator. He served as the Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1959 to 1973 and again from 1985 to 1988. He was also Artistic Director of the Paris Opera from 1973 to 1980.
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Jonas Furrer
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Jonas Furrer was a Swiss lawyer and politician who served as member of the Federal Council, from 1848 to 1861, and as the first president of the Swiss Confederation from 1848 to 1849, and again in 1852, 1855 and 1858. He was one of the leading figures in the foundation of Switzerland as a federal state. He was a member of the Radical Party.
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Ita Wegman
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Ita Wegman co-founded Anthroposophical Medicine with Rudolf Steiner. In 1921, she founded the first anthroposophical medical clinic in Arlesheim, known until 2014 as the Ita Wegman Clinic. She also developed a special form of massage therapy, called rhythmical massage, and other self-claimed therapeutic treatments.
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Kariem Hussein
- Occupations
- athletics competitor
- Biography
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Kariem Hussein is a Swiss athlete who specialises in the 400 metres hurdles. His first major success was the gold medal at the 2014 European Championships in Zürich. His personal best in the event is 48.45, set at a meeting in Zug in 2015 and again at Weltklasse Zürich in 2017. It is also technically his fastest flat 400m because he has not attempted the distance since 2009 when his PR was 48.58.
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Sebalter
- Occupations
- lawyercomposersingertelevision presenter
- Biography
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Sebastiano Paù-Lessi, better known by his stage name, Sebalter (stylised SEBalter) is a Swiss singer, fiddler, and attorney who represented his country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He performed the song "Hunter of Stars" in the final on 10 May 2014, finishing 13th with 64 points. Sebalter was born in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. Prior to Eurovision he worked as a business lawyer, putting his law career on hold to focus on his music career.
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Uli Sigg
- Occupations
- diplomatentrepreneurbusinesspersonart collectorjournalist
- Biography
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Uli Sigg is a Swiss businessman, diplomat and art collector. He served as the Swiss Ambassador to China, North Korea and Mongolia from 1995 to 1998. He serves as the vice chairman of Ringier, the largest media company in Switzerland. He made a large donation of contemporary Chinese art to the Hong Kong-based M+ museum in 2012.
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Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
- Occupations
- historianwriteruniversity teachersociologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy was a historian and social philosopher, whose work spanned the disciplines of history, theology, sociology, linguistics and beyond. Born in Berlin, Germany into a non-observant Jewish family, the son of a prosperous banker, he converted to Christianity in his late teens, and thereafter the interpretation and reinterpretation of Christianity was a consistent theme in his writings. He met and married Margrit Hüssy in 1914. In 1925, the couple legally combined their names. They had a son, Hans, in 1921.
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Natalie Grams
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Natalie Grams-Nobmann is a German physician and author. Formerly a practicing homeopath, she became known throughout Germany as a whistleblower for her 2015 debut book Homeopathy Reconsidered – What Really Helps Patients in which she criticized homeopathy. In 2016 she joined the Science Council of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences (GWUP – the German Sceptics Association). From January 2017 to April 2020 she served as Communications Manager for the GWUP. She also serves on the advisory board of the humanist Giordano Bruno Foundation since May 2017, and as vice president of the Humanist Press Foundation in Germany since October 2017. In October 2017 her second book, Gesundheit – A Book Not Without Side Effects, was published. It was followed by her third book, What really Works – Compass through the World of Gentle Medicine, in February 2020. In 2021, Natalie Grams was awarded the Fellowship of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. This award is given for "distingued contributions to science and skepticism and for commitment to rational inquiry and public education".
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Kazimierz Fajans
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Kazimierz Fajans was a Polish American physical chemist of Polish-Jewish origin, a pioneer in the science of radioactivity and the co-discoverer of chemical element protactinium.
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Katharina Focke
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Katharina Focke was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). She served as Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth from 1972 to 1976.
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Balthasar Glättli
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Balthasar Glättli is a Swiss politician. He is a member of the National Council and, since June 2020, the president of the Green Party of Switzerland.
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Verena Huber-Dyson
- Enrolled in the University of Zurich
- In 1947 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
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Verena Esther Huber-Dyson was a Swiss-American mathematician, known for her work on group theory and formal logic. She has been described as a "brilliant mathematician", who did research on the interface between algebra and logic, focusing on undecidability in group theory. At the time of her death, she was emeritus faculty in the philosophy department of the University of Calgary, Alberta.
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Nadezhda Suslova
- Occupations
- obstetriciangynaecologistphysiciansurgeon
- Biography
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Nadezhda Prokofyevna Suslova was Russia's first woman medical doctor and the sister of Polina Suslova. She worked as a gynecologist in Nizhny Novgorod, and was involved in many charity efforts.
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Mattea Meyer
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Mattea Julia Meyer is a Swiss politician who currently serves as member of the National Council (Switzerland) for the Social Democratic Party since 2015. Concurrently she co-chairs the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland together with Cédric Wermuth. Previously, Meyer served on the Cantonal Council of Zürich from 2011 to 2015.
