Robert H. Abplanalp, 1922-2003

Louis Agassiz (Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz), 1807 - 1873

Alexandre (Alexander) Agassiz, 1835-1910, zoologist, geologist, born in Neuchatel. Son of Louis Agassiz. Came to join his father in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1849, after the death of his mother. He took degrees in Harvard in civil engineering and in natural history. In 1859 he became Assistant in the US Coast Survey. He subsequently assisted his father at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, later taking over as its head. Profits from a copper mine on Lake Superior in Michigan, where he worked as mine superintendent, gave him the financial resources to carry out his own independent research in marine biology, particularly in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Armand Borel, 1923-2003, mathematician. Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, studied mathematics at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Spent 1949-50 in Paris where he came into contact with leading French mathematicians who exercised an important influence on this thinking. In 1952 he went to Princeton, having been invited to the Institute for Advanced Study there. In 1954 he moved on to Chicago, returning to Switzerland to take up an appointment as professor of Mathematics at the Federal Institute of Techology in Zurich. Princeton then offered him a prestigious permanent professorship which he took up in 1957, where he remained until 1993. For three years 1983-6 he held concurrently a professorship in Zurich. He divided the last years of his life between the US, the Far East and Switzerland, and died in Princeton. He received a number of honors, including the Balzan Prize in 1992.

Karl Brunner, 1916-1989, economist. Born in Zurich, studied at the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, at at the London School of Economics. Went to the US in 1943, took up teaching positions first at Harvard then at Chicago State University. In 1951 was appointed professor at UCLA. Later moved to Ohio State University and subsequently to the University of Rochester in New York. From 1974 to 1986 he taught at the University of Bern, but moved back to the US and died in Rochester. His main interest in economics lay with the nature of the money supply process. He opposed government interference. Along with Milton Friedman he was one of the chief proponents of neoliberal monetarism. 

Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

Jean Hoerni, 1924-1997, silicon transistor pioneer. Born in Switzerland. Obtained physics doctorates at Cambridge University and the University of Geneva. Moved to the US in 1952 to work at the California Institute of Technology, where he met William Shockley, founder of Silicon Valley. After working for Shockley for about a year, he and seven colleagues left to create the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. It was here that Hoerni invented the planar process, a means of fusing an insulating layer of silicon dioxide onto a chip before applying the conducting metal circuitry. This revolutionary discovery led to the creation of the silicon chip. Hoerni later left Fairchild and founded several other companies, including Intersil, which used the technology to pioneer digital watches. Hoerni was also a keen mountainer, and even partially scaled Mount Everest. He was moved by the plight of the Balti people of the Karakorams in northern Pakistan, and created a million dollar foundation to help provide health care and education for them. 

Urs Hölzle, 1964-, computer scientist. Born in Zurich, studied Information Technology at the Federal Institute for Technology in Zurich. In 1988, won a Fulbright scholarship to Stanford University, where he studied programming languages and their implementation, gaining a Ph.D in 1994. He was one of the pioneers of tehcniques used in most Java compilers. After holding the post of associate professor of computer science at the Universitiy of California, Santa Barbara, he joined Google, and as its first vice president of engineering he developed both its software and hardware infrastructure. 

John (Heinrich) Kruesi, 1843 - 1899

Paul John Kruesi, 1878-1965, electrical engineer and businessman born in Menlo Park, NJ. One of the eight children of John Kruesi, he started work in the Chicago Edison Company after studying electrical engineering. He moved into management and sat on the boards of a number of companies, many of them connected with mining and metallurgy. He was active in the Electrochemical Society, acting as its director for many years and serving as president 1928-29. He also helped to establish the US Chamber of Commerce. The Kruesi Spirit of Innovation award, presented each year by the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce honors both Paul John (who became a leading citizen of the town) and his father.

Johann Ulrich Nef, 1862 - 1915

Claude Nicollier, 1944-

Fritz Zwicky, 1898 - 1974