Farnaz Moser's four lives at EPFL

Farnaz Boroumand was still a minor when she moved to Switzerland to study at EPFL. And she hasn’t left our School since then, apart from a year-long stint at our sister school in Zurich. A chemical engineer by training, she will be retiring from EPFL in a few months. She attended only one university and has worked for only one employer. “But I’ve had several lives at EPFL,” she says by way of explanation. The Outstanding Commitment Award comes in recognition of the person just as much as her career. “His tenacity, humanity, and vision have profoundly enriched the community and opened science to everyone,” the laudatio states.

Moser-Boroumand’s oft-repeated story starts off like a fairy tale. Growing up as a gifted child in Tehran, she had the opportunity to visit a chemical plant when she was 11 – an experience that ultimately shaped her future. “I saw the kind of work that chemical engineers do and decided that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. I’d found my calling!” Universities had been temporarily closed in Iran, so she moved to Switzerland to attend EPFL. She started by going through the preparatory program (CMS) owing to her non-Swiss high-school diploma, then went on to obtain her master’s and PhD and work as a postdoc and researcher.

This first experience paved the way to her second. Alongside her research, which was in part on soil pollution, Moser-Boroumand was actively involved in EPFL associations, by designing and leading projects in the frame of issues she felt strongly about: providing a daycare service for employees with small children, offering career advancement opportunities for scientific staff and setting up a career center, for example. She was a member of EPFL’s scientific staff association and served as its president for some years. When the Polychinelle daycare facility was opened in 1996, that was thanks largely to her efforts – an achievement she’s reminded of daily, as the Science Outreach Department is located on the second floor of the same building.

Build girls’ self-esteem

“I’ve always worked at the same place, but I’ve switched jobs several times,” says Moser-Boroumand. In the early 2000s, she moved into her third role, when she left research to become EPFL’s equal opportunity officer. This led to the development of the Equal Opportunity Office in 2004, which initially rolled out initiatives to support women’s careers, attract girls to science and engineering and help build girls’ self-esteem.

“Then I realized that science outreach is important for boys, too – not only to train the next generation of scientists but also to improve citizens’ general knowledge about these topics,” says Moser-Boroumand. She accordingly began to promote science education for everyone yet without giving up her feminist values. “Our society is being increasingly influenced by science and technology,” she says. “Both boys and girls need to be taught scientific concepts so they can understand the world around them and make well-informed decisions affecting their own lives and society as a whole.” EPFL set up a science outreach unit in 2008 and then expanded it to a department in 2015. Today, the department has more than 30 employees working under Moser-Boroumand’s guidance – the fourth phase of her career at EPFL. Every year the department reaches over 20,000 children from across Switzerland, and just as many adults, through its “Les sciences, ça m’intéresse!” program and its various initiatives, such as workshops for children and teens, a science bus, scientific activities in collaboration with schools in different regions and the Scientastic science fair.

We need to restore citizens’ trust in science – and education is the key to doing that.

Although Farnaz is tirelessly positive, she does not hide the complexity of the task, her time at EPFL hasn’t always been smooth sailing. For example; her department has been repositioned within EPFL seven times in the past ten years. That means she’s had to adapt to a new culture seven times, absorbing the impact of the change herself in order to minimize the disruption to her team. She’s also had to fight to get her pioneering initiatives off the ground and secure funding. Today she’s more motivated than ever, as she believes science is losing ground in the face of a growing amount of mistrust and backward thinking. “That makes it even more important to continue our efforts,” she says. “We need to restore citizens’ trust in science – and education is the key to doing that.”

“I’ve loved every minute of what I’ve done"

As she looks back on her various roles, Moser-Boroumand feels lucky. “I’ve loved every minute of what I’ve done, from attending classes and conducting research to supporting gender equality and promoting science education,” she says. “I’m fortunate to have been able to champion initiatives and implement them – and especially to be able to watch them come to life!” She smiles and her eyes light up as she describes her many small wins: parents who thank her for helping their child find a career path; high-school graduates who decide to attend EPFL because they’d participated to science outreach activities in school; teenagers who, once they’re too old for EPFL’s Coding Club for Girls, become a club instructor; and the simple pleasure of seeing her team “happy.”

“It won’t be easy to leave all these initiatives behind, but I’m pleased with what we have accomplished with my amazing team,” she says. “We’ve made good progress and I’m sure that will continue. There comes a time when you have to hand over the reins.” Moser-Boroumand is heading into retirement with confidence. And, unsurprisingly, she also mentions that she plans to stay active in the issues most important to her, “although all in due time.”