“People, animals and plants. Everyone and everything should feel at home.”
Nobody knows the gardens and green spaces on the H?nggerberg campus better than J?rg Brenn: this dedicated member of the ETH gardening team has been taking care of the university’s green lungs for more than 35 years.
When you mention the word “lawn mower” around to J?rg Brenn, his eyes light up. Switching on the motor, engaging the right gear and then simply mowing away – “that’s the part I enjoy most about my work”. Twice a year, Brenn pushes his electric mower over the extensive meadows and green spaces on the H?nggerberg campus. Funnily enough, he does not have a speedy, racing-car-like machine you can sit in, similar to what many a green-fingered hobbyist may like to own.
The truth is he does not want to race across the green, but would rather take his time to quietly study the meadows. With an almost pious dedication, he regales us with stories of all the hedgehogs, mice, small birds, lizards and frogs he has encountered on his journeys mowing the grass. Wildflowers, grasses and fungi have also been spreading in recent years, thanks to a move away from weeding, fertilisers and spraying in favour of a more natural approach to gardening.
ETH Zurich is keen to encourage natural biodiversity. On the H?nggerberg campus, this can be seen in the flowery meadows, various bushes, native wild shrubs, natural hedges and planted trees. For example, part of the hay meadows is now set aside as a safe space for insects and small creatures to retreat to.
J?rg Brenn is fond of sustainable gardening: “People, animals and plants – everyone and everything should feel at home.” Indeed, the assistant gardener is himself an excellent witness, able to testify that there has been an audible increase in the volume of buzzing, humming, croaking and whistling in the campus’s green spaces: he has been there, busily working away, caring for the university’s gardens since 1980.
Brenn recalls how it all began. Back then, 35 years ago, on a day when his job as a mechanic in a factory was getting him down yet again, he sent a speculative application to the then-head gardener at ETH Zurich: he was looking for a “job with more contact with nature”, and asked if he could call by some time. He received an invitation – even without having the right training.
Brenn has a wry smile: “I’ve been outside nine hours every day in summer, and eight in winter, ever since.” The current heat wave does not bother him, and he also loves the snow. He cleans the garden tools or helps out with maintenance when it rains. “There is always something to do,” he says. The question of what he does not like about his work seems to baffle him.
It seems he has never actually pondered the thought that cutting hedges and buds, watering flowerbeds, sprinkling water on the grass, harvesting hay, sweeping up branches and raking leaves could not be fun. The green-fingered fellow puts has head back and squints as he looks into the sunlight dappling through the leaves above. J?rg Brenn gives the impression of a man who has found his place in nature.
Anniversaries Second quarter 2015
35 years
J?rg Brenn, Facility Management Infrastructure Division
Marcel Herzog, Services
Dr Pascal Leuchtmann, Institute of Electromagnetic Fields
Bruno J?rg, Laboratory of Crystallography
Doris Sutter, Institute of Chemical and Bioengineering
David Schmid, Facility Management Infrastructure Division
30 years
Michael Leopold, Institute for Solid State Physics
Rolf Willy Liebermann, Real Estate Infrastructure Division
Cornelius Senn, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Albert Weber, Institute of Machine Tools and Manufacturing
Hans Wunderli, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems
25 years
Piero Arizzoli, ETH-Bibliothek
Dr Stefan Blunier, Institute of Mechanical Systems
Etienne Chevalley, RAPLAB D-ARCH
Jules Fenner, Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry
Stefan Gribi, Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology
Marie-Laure Müller, Professor of Development Economics
Renate Pfister,Facility Management Infrastructure Division
Aldo-Ricardo Rossi, Institute of Electromagnetic Fields
Zsuzsanna Sebestyén, Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation
20 years
Doris Amstad, Study Administration Department of Physics
Luca Bacchetta, CSCS – Swiss National Supercomputing Centre
Dr Hans-Rudolf B?r, Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation
Aida Madalena Huber-Morence da Costa, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health
Dr Jean Favre, CSCS – Swiss National Supercomputing Centre
Patrick Flütsch, Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Ewa Grob, Institute of Machine Tools and Manufacturing
Dr Peter Koschitz, Department of Computer Science
Markus Naef, ITS Multimedia Services
Selwyn Edouard Rochard, ETH-Bibliothek
Beat Scherer, Services Department
Dr Michael Armand Sprenger, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science
15 years
Roger Aebli, ETH-Bibliothek
Christoph Bless, Safety, Security, Health, Environment
Dr Hansj?rg Dietz, Institute of Integrative Biology
Hans Hiltbrunner, ITS System Services
Daniel Sandro Ménard, Institute of Technology in Architecture
Dr Eva Ruiz Muller, Institute of Pervasive Computing
Dr Christoph Küffer Schumacher, Environmental Systems Science
Dominic D?hler, Department of Biology
10 years
Dr Isabelle Herter-Aeberli, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health
Gianni Antonitti, ITS Service Delivery
Michael Ehrismann, ETH-Bibliothek
Dr Erich Markus Fischer, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science
Stefan Haldemann, ITS ICT Networks
André Hunziker, ITS User Services
Brigitta Herzog, Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Dr Andreas Dominik Müller, ETH-Bibliothek
Dr Arnold Milenko Müller, Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics
Dr Dario Martin Nordio, Professor of Software Engineering
Christian Rossi, Psychology in Work and Society
Daniel Schneider, Educational Development and Technology
Dr Laurie Paule Sch?nholzer, Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Beatrice Yvonne Sp?rri-Kunz, Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management (IBI)
Dr Miluse Trtikova, Institute of Integrative Biology
Barbara Schuhbeck Wagner, Institute of Biochemistry
Dr Alessandro Vindigni, Institute for Solid State Physics
Retirements
Dr Hans Gerber, Institute of Biomechanics
Fritz Grunder, ETH research station Chamau
Gerda B?rtschi, Professor of Animal Physiology
Dr Beat Walter Müller, Rector’s Domain
Manuel Nieves, Services Department
Prof Andreas Fischlin, Department of Environmental Systems Science
Dr Milena Pika-Biolzi, Collections and Archives
Werner Portmann, SGU Emergency Operations Centre
Dr Abdul Khadar Jeelani Shaik, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health
Deaths
Prof Jiri Matousek, Institute of Theoretical Computer Science