Ambassador Dora Rapold meets Boston’s young talents
Ambassador Dora Rapold meets Boston’s young talents
| Despite the bitter Boston winter—or perhaps because of it— swissnex Boston welcomed a Swiss Foreign Services delegation led by Ambassador Dora Rapold on Wednesday, February 16, 2011, for a day packed with talks and visits. Ambassador Rapold, who heads the Political Division of the Americas within the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern, and her Deputy Daniel Hunn were joined by Guillaume Scheurer, Deputy Head of Mission; Christoph Ebell, Advisor for Science and Technology, and Stephan Klauser of the Swiss Embassy in Washington D.C. |
Starting off with a traditional Swiss breakfast, the delegation chatted with the team at swissnex Boston. They then met with prominent Swiss scholars in the Boston area, such as Iris Bohnet, a Swiss Professor of Public Policy who directs the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Given her vast experience in development aid, Ambassador Rapold showed particular interest in Prof. Bohnet’s work on women development and the Harvard initiative “Closing the Global Gender Gap.”
For lunch, swissnex Boston hosted an event on Swiss-American Relations with the support of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce. Around fine Swiss food, Ambassador Rapold reminded invitees of the two countries’ strong bilateral bonds. Local entrepreneurs and scholars related their experiences on Swiss-American relations in the high-level discussion that followed.
The rest of the day was devoted to meeting young Swiss talents. MIT students presented their research to the delegation, who then toured the MIT campus—from the Media Lab at MIT to the Swiss Typography exhibition—before ending up at the Novartis Lab. There, three young Swiss scientists explained their groundbreaking research on cancer.
