Enjoying the ride: Sarah Springman isn't just one of the rare female university professors in the male-dominated field of civil engineering, she also excels in triathlon events and rowing. Swiss News spoke with the British-born professor about muscles and Swiss mountains.
| Auteur | Heddema, Renske |
| Fonction | Expat Profile |
At this time of night, when most people are eating dinner, the hallways are almost empty at the Honggerberg campus of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). But on the landing halfway to her office, a reassuring voice leads the way with "you're on the right track," and seconds later, I get a firm handshake from the 1.85 metre tall professor. Dr. Sarah Springman seems nowhere near ready to call it a day.
As head of the Institute for Geotechnical Engineering, Springman keeps long hours. These past few weeks, 80 hours were the rule, not the exception. Apart from teaching and managing research, she has the stack of paper work that comes with administrative responsibilities. And the institute is currently presenting four projects for the 150th anniversary celebration of ETH.
The projects put university research in the public eye, whether by looking at the impact of heavy rainfall on alpine slopes or making a comparison of natural hazards on Mars and Earth. Springman's group is also exploring a strange phenomenon in 1806, when erosion claimed three more kilometers of the hill above Goldau village than science can so far explain,
"Taking into account the difference in gravity, we can compare the avalanches on Mars and Earth by means of the Mars recovery," she explains, in reference to detailed images being transmitted by two roving test stations on the red planet's surface. Two unmanned craft are taking pictures for scientists on Earth and remote sensors at the test station "enable fantastic pictures. By putting on these funny green and red glasses, you get a clear, three-dimensional picture of Mars," she says.
Paradise
But most of her research takes place in the Swiss mountains, not too far away from work.
"A civil engineers' paradise", the 48- year old researcher says of Switzerland, to which she moved about eight years ago. With all the roads and tunnels--coupled with their maintenance programs--the quality of construction is a delight for anybody with a technical mind. Springman's own specialty is soil, from the brittle deposit on the northern shores of Lake Zurich to the postglacial silts and clays in the valley around the airport. She finds ample research material.
Springman had her first glimpse of the Swiss Alps at age 72, sitting in a train on a family ski holiday. The next time she touched down in Switzerland, in 1994, she was competing in the first-ever women's triathlon in Zurich--a consuming passion while at Cambridge University...
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