Drop Bears or Polar Bears? It's Safer in the Alps

Spotlight on ASAIN member Dr. Eliza Harris, Associate Professor in Climate and Environmental Physics, University of Bern, and Director of the High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat.

Eliza is kindly hosting ASAIN for a tour of the Junfraujoch high altitude laboratory and Sphinx Observatory. Registration is open to all ASAIN members, for the 10th of December: https://asain.ch/news-events/asain-visit-jungfraujoch-high-altitude-research-station

I grew up in Brunswick, in Melbourne’s north, with a classic Australian childhood of beach holidays and Vegemite. Though I’d rarely seen snow, I loved science and accepted a scholarship to study a Bachelor of Antarctic Science at the University of Tasmania in 2005. After my first year of university, I backpacked through Europe, spending a month in Switzerland – I still remember the old cities, efficient trains, cheesy raclette, pricey beer, and skiing in Villars.

My first beer in the Swiss Alps – January 11, 2006.

At UTAS, I majored in Chemistry and became fascinated by early Antarctic explorers and the continent’s complex geopolitics. The UTAS Sandy Bay campus leading down to the riverside was a beautiful place to live and study. I was able to take part in an exchange program at the University Centre in Svalbard, Norway, trading wallabies and lamingtons for brown cheese, icy temperatures, Arctic foxes, and rifles for polar bear safety.

After completing my Bachelor and Honours, I sought a move to Europe – partly drawn by its history and mountains, but also because of my then-boyfriend (now husband), Franz, who comes from Ötztal in Austria. I began a PhD in atmospheric chemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and spent four years studying sulfur isotope effects and enduring long grey winters.

The town of Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen, where the University Centre in Svalbard offers a diverse curriculum in Arctic science and technology. 

My husband and I then spent a year in Boston while I was a postdoc at MIT. I did a lot of fun science, but the most important outcome of this time was our cat, Messi, who came from the streets of Boston. Next stop was Switzerland. I worked at Empa in Dübendorf for almost four years, and our first child, Luisa, was born in 2015. Swiss paperwork reached new heights after her birth! 

Wanting to be closer to family (and deterred by sky-high Swiss childcare costs), we moved to Austria in 2016. I worked at the University of Innsbruck in the Department of Ecology and our second daughter, Antonia, was born in 2017. In 2021, mid-pandemic, we returned to Switzerland for jobs in the Zurich area and settled in Uster. I joined ETHZ’s Swiss Data Science Centre, and we enjoyed the tranquil Züri-Oberland life.

In 2024, I started work in the most exciting position of my career so far – Associate Professor at the University of Bern, and Director of the Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat research laboratories. This position builds on the interdisciplinary postdoc career I have had as I moved through the world, and brings me in contact with a wide range of scientific projects, from atmospheric monitoring, to high altitude physiology, to technological component testing. Visiting Jungfraujoch never gets old, and the view from the terrace is always a highlight.

Visiting the Jungfraujoch research station with my family. My kids were most impressed by the Lindt chocolate and feeding sultanas to the Alpine choughs.

Life in the Berner Oberland suits us for now: The mountains are close for hiking and skiing, Lake Thun is right nearby for swimming (even in winter!), and our cat Messi loves lounging in the Spiez sun. However, I miss Australia and have visited several times for extended periods on scientific exchanges. My children speak (fairly) Australian English and one of them likes Vegemite. I hope to return to Australia someday and live there again – as the old song says, “I still call Australia home”.

Eliza will be hosting the upcoming tour of the Jungfraujoch High Altitude Research Station for ASAIN: https://asain.ch/news-events/asain-visit-jungfraujoch-high-altitude-research-station