Memorial for Robert Gnehm
ETH main building

This bust commemorates ETH Professor Robert Gnehm. Specializing in dye chemistry, Gnehm was a key figure linking academic and industrial chemistry in Switzerland—his functions in both fields overlapped throughout his career. After studying chemistry at the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, Gnehm worked as a colorist of so-called Indiennes in the batik printing company Blumer in Glarus and as a developer of tar-coal dyes at Bindschedler & Busch aniline dye factory in Basel (later Ciba). He served as director of Ciba from 1885 to 1894, and later became co-owner of Sandoz (1895) and chairman of its board of directors (1896–1900). 

While being a professor at the Zurich Polytechnic from 1894 to 1904, he became the school’s rector in 1899 and served as president of the ETH Board from 1905 to 1926. As professor of chemistry, he researched and taught topics such as the dye brazilin, derived from Paubrasilia echinata. The deforestation and commodification of Paubrasilia were instrumental to the colonization of Brazil.