What does it mean to be the manager of the D-BSSE shutdown?

Niels, you are the Head of Infrastructure Services and you are the manager of the D-BSSE shutdown. Shutting down the D-BSSE in less than a week was an enormous effort. Were detailed plans for executing such a shutdown already in place or were they developed during Feb/early March once the pandemic was foreseen to effect Switzerland/ the ETH Zurich?

First of all, I am not the only manager of the shutdown, there was the Corona Task Force including Niko Beerenwinkel, Andrea Huber and myself; and, Niko and Andrea did an excellent job so far.
Yes, there were plans but of course, we had to adjust these plans and had to set new measures in accordance with what was actually happening in this ongoing pandemic. When I look back to these past weeks, we at D-BSSE were actually always a bit ahead of what ETH Zurich was doing or planning to do. The D-BSSE Corona Task Force anticipated potential developments and measures and this was one of our strengths, we were very well prepared for what eventually came.
So, coming back to your question: there was a plan for the departmental shutdown in case of a pandemic, but we had to further develop this document quite a bit in order to be prepared for the next steps.

What was the most challenging during the shutdown?

We had this week of transition phase during which everybody had to help shutdown the labs and finish the experiments. Most of the people relocated to the home-office. However, at the end we had to ask ourselves who actually is allowed to continue working physically at the department, and that answer was given by the Executive Board of the ETH Zurich. They decided that there are four groups that could still be present at the department. These groups included the staff which had essential work to do on site such as refilling liquid nitrogen tanks and for maintaining cell cultures that cannot be frozen; secondly, people are still allowed in the building who have experiments running that cannot be stopped, for example experiments where live animals are involved; thirdly, all the researchers involved in COVID19 projects - and the D-BSSE ramped up quite a few; actually we learnt last week that compared to the other ETH departments we have launched the highest number of COVID-related projects; and, then we have one spin-off that is still working with us on site. All this was pretty challenging for us. We also had to change the organizational structure of the FIS team {Facility of Infrastructure Services} so that they can support the ongoing research projects and at the same time, stay safe and healthy. In addition, a great challenge for us is to make sure that we have disinfectant supplies, that we have masks and gloves due to very long delivery times. This indeed is a great challenge, we have enough material in place but we might foresee such a critical situation concerning the availability until the end of this year… In all these shut down activities we have to stay in compliance with ETH regulations and the recommendations given by the Swiss Federal Office for Health. All this is a big effort for everyone of us.

During the shutdown your workdays at D-BSSE start at 7 AM and end at about 5 PM, you are one the persons present on the Rosenthal campus every day: what keeps you busy?

Well, my days do not stop at 5PM…I keep working after that from home since there are a lot of projects we kept running, which is great. As I am talking to you, in this moment the IT unit is moving to that renovated floor in the building 1055 {BSD}, luckily we could finish the renovation during the past weeks. There is another renovation project on the fourth floor of 1058 {BSA} where we make good progress. Also, at the construction site of the new building {BSS} they kept on working… Here, on this photograph in the background you see the facade. And then, of course, we have all the new COVID19 projects in which we are involved, for example the shop is handling an increasing amount of orders.

There is this question which we received through the Zoom chat and I am sure you can answer it: have there been COVID19 cases at the D-BSSE?

Not really at the D-BSSE itself: we had two cases where we suspected an infection, and both were tested negative. Another person, who had actually left the D-BSSE was tested positive, but this person had not been physically at the D-BSSE and all people who had been in contact with this person beforehand had been informed and didn’t show any symptoms afterwards. So, I can confirm that we were pretty close... but luckily, the virus did not hit us health-wise.

How fast will it go for D-BSSE to return to normal operations once ETH ends the shutdown?

It will depend on the judgement of the Federal Council of Switzerland and of the Federal Office of Health and, of course, the ETH Zurich. But I would judge it is not a matter of days but rather in the order of months. What we are anticipating now is that there will be a phase lasting probably from the end of April until the end of May during which a small group of people is returning to their work places. We will closely watch the infection rate and see how the situation develops once a first relaxation is being introduced. We will see what time brings…!

Did the federal lock-down effect the BSS construction site?

We are lucky: the federal lock-down had very little impact on the construction works, in other words: there might be a slow-down of only a week or two. From 170 construction workers before COVID-times about 140 construction workers kept on working. There is one issue that has an impact: they are waiting for materials to arrive from Italy. But still, the plan is that we will be moving to the new building in spring or early summer 2022.

Thank you very much, Niels, and: keep holding the fortress!