Dies Academicus 2008

Dies academicus 2008: Gilles Paisant honoured by the Faculty of Law and Criminal Sciences

Gilles Paisant receives the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa. A professor at the University of Savoie in Chambéry, he set up a consumer law research centre there. Since 1997, he has run a joint degree course with UNIL in French, Swiss and comparative competition and consumer law (master's degree in Switzerland).

This law came into being in the early 1970s at the height of the consumer society. Its aim is to maintain or re-establish a balance in the relationship between the professional supplier of a product or service and the consumer. According to Gilles Paisant, this right is not the same in a very liberal country like Switzerland as it is in France, which is more concerned with protecting the weak. The

With regard to consumer affairs, legal mechanisms must be introduced to remedy the threefold technical, economic and legal disadvantage of the consumer. The professional has the technical information about his product or service, as well as the economic and legal means to impose his law. In France, consumer protection is based on a large number of texts brought together in a consumer code. It is clear that it would be very useful for our country to compare the two legislative systems, and for UNIL to continue its collaboration between the Faculty of Law and Criminal Sciences and the University of Savoie.

Dies academicus 2008: Alain Tanner honoured by the Faculty of Arts

A lesson in utopia

The Swiss film-maker in 1975, during the filming of Jonas, which will be twenty-five years old in the year 2000. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa. An overview of a long and distinguished career pursued in complete freedom.

The UNIL is delighted to recognise Alain Tanner as the author of a body of work that calls for intelligence and freedom, including the freedom he enjoyed in relation to the academic institutions of his time. In Ciné-mélanges, published in May 2007, he describes himself as ‘something of a miracle worker’. Let there be no misunderstanding: it is precisely Alain Tanner's freedom that is being hailed by the Faculty of Arts and its History and Aesthetics of Cinema section.

With Paul s'en va, his last film in 2003, Tanner took his leave of the cinema, a territory that was for him not a refuge in beautiful images, costumes from the past, the exploration of everyday life, or cinephilia, but a tool for trying to see reality differently and for putting the idea of pleasure back at the heart of our stolen, not to say alienated, lives. For Tanner is a filmmaker whose joy is both rediscovered and always threatened in the opaque Switzerland he criticised as early as 1969, when he made his first feature film, Charles Dead or Alive.

With Paul s'en va, his last film in 2003, Tanner took his leave of the cinema, a territory that was for him not a refuge in beautiful images, costumes from the past, the exploration of everyday life, or cinephilia, but a tool for trying to see reality differently and for putting the idea of pleasure back at the heart of our stolen, not to say alienated, lives. For Tanner is a filmmaker whose joy is both rediscovered and always threatened in the opaque Switzerland he criticised as early as 1969, when he made his first feature film, Charles Dead or Alive.

Everyone can express their own preferences in Tanner's filmography. There are, of course, the well-known titles such as La Salamandre (1971) and Jonas qui aura vingt-cinq ans en l'an 2000 (1976). The teenage undersigned loved Messidor in 1979, the harsh drift of two young city girls in our Alpine valleys. Later, Dans la ville blanche (1982) introduced us to Bruno Ganz and made us love Lisbon. Then, in 1991, we were delighted to follow L'homme qui a perdu son ombre, a film of striking beauty set in a Spanish village...

Tanner can enthrall his viewers with true words carried on the wind and characters rooted in a unique landscape, where you enter with the sensation of arriving in the middle of the world. Against economic violence and the crushing of spirits, he advocates poetic resistance. At a time when cinema offers terrifying portraits of villains, the innocence of Tannoy's characters recalls brighter times when a filmmaker could, despite a certain pessimism, invite us to be joyful and set off in search of beauty.

Dies academicus 2008: Philippe Roch honoured by the Faculty of Science and Environment

Ecology in the 21st century

Philippe Roch calls himself an active pessimist. His commitment to ecology is consubstantial with him: "It was my intimacy with nature, which I developed from a very young age, and my awareness of the damage that humans inflict on it, that gave direction to my life" he explains.

His great-grandfather, a French farmer from La Roche-sur-Foron, immigrated to Switzerland. His father is an estate agent, but for Philippe Roch, his farming roots take precedence, and it is these that have prompted him to move to Russin in the Geneva countryside, where he works as an independent consultant.

Born in Lancy, in the canton of Geneva, in 1949, Philippe Roch is the youngest of nine children. The family dinner table was often the scene of political battles," he recalls. He was elected to the Lancy Municipal Council at the age of 22 and to the Grand Council of the State of Geneva at the age of 24. At the time, he was a member of the PDC, "the party of my lineage", he says, from which he quickly resigned in a spirit of independence. Philippe Roch wanted to be a campaign doctor, but eventually turned to biochemistry. He set up the Geneva section of the WWF, an organisation of which he has been a member for fifteen years, while completing his doctoral thesis.

Philippe Roch is passionate about spatial planning issues and deals with hot topics such as nuclear power. In particular, he took part in the fight against the Creys-Malville nuclear reactor in neighbouring France, and campaigned for the reintroduction of the lynx in Valais. He took the helm of WWF Switzerland and won the battle of Rothenthurm, an area of marshland destined to become a battlefield. From 1992 to 2005, the environmentalist became director of the Federal Office for the Environment: "Despite my activist background, I respect and believe in the institutions," he says. He is committed to opposing GMOs, attending the Rio Earth Summit, chairing the Biodiversity Convention and working on the international waste trade.

In 2007, Philippe Roch had to face up to his illness, a brain tumour, which was successfully operated on. This passionate man, who cultivates sobriety, scientific rigour and is interested in spiritual issues, is logically the laureate of the Faculty of Science and the Environment.

Dies academicus 2008: Luc Ciompi honoured by the Faculty of Biology and Medicine

Born on 10 October 1929 in Italy, Luc Ciompi studied medicine in Berne and Geneva. His teaching career took him to the University of Lausanne in the 1960s and 1970s, before returning to Berne, where he headed the University Social Psychiatric Clinic until 1994. This eminent socio-psychiatrist did a great deal of research into the interaction between rational thought and emotional life, which enabled him to develop new methods for treating schizophrenia. The effect of our feelings on thought, as well as on memory, now interests him, and in a new book in preparation he addresses the impact of collective feelings on social events.

At the suggestion of the Faculty of Biology and Medicine, UNIL will award an honorary doctorate to Professor Luc Ciompi, also known for his groundbreaking research into the evolution of mental illness. This Lausanne survey looked at the fate of more than 5,000 former patients of the Cery hospital over an average period of 30 to 40 years. Half of those affected by a very serious illness such as schizophrenia saw their condition improve over the long term. Overall, this study revealed a positive influence of advanced age on certain mental illnesses. The results are still surprising today.

Website: www.ciompi.com 

Dies academicus 2008: Heidi Diggelmann awarded the Prix de l'Université de Lausanne

Balancing research and family life

Heidi Diggelmann, can you describe your career path?

I am 72 years old, a doctor by training and an honorary professor at the University of Lausanne. A specialist in viral research, I headed the Institute of Microbiology at UNIL before chairing the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Your greatest achievement as head of the Swiss National Science Foundation?

Research pôles have done a lot to get scientists and universities moving. Professorships, paid for by the SNSF and with a high degree of autonomy, are the lifeblood of the academic community. These professors have funds at their disposal and can form a team: they are no longer under the supervision of established professors.

What do you see as the priority issue for your successors?

Interdisciplinarity must be promoted and original research developed at the interface between different scientific disciplines must be encouraged. However, the evaluation of such projects is tricky.

What are we to make of the very noticeable presence these days of foreign professors in Switzerland?

This is part of university life and I don't see any particular problem with it. On the other hand, we can observe varying rates of training between Swiss and European universities, particularly in the humanities. Some foreign candidates have more publications and experience than local candidates. I met researchers who were aware that they had reached an impasse almost 40 years ago. They had wasted time doing work that wasn't worthwhile in order to get a professorship. I advocate mentoring not just for women, but for all young people.

For women, more specifically, what have you done?

We have improved the representation of women at all levels, without compromising on quality. We also wanted to create conditions that would facilitate research and family life. Rather than focusing on integration, the aim is to enable women to stay in their academic careers. For example, some scholarship holders receive a salary top-up to cover childcare costs.

What are your activities at the moment?

I advise on research projects and strategies in Germany and Austria, at major academic institutions and research promotion organisations. In Switzerland, I am active in a number of private foundations. Public institutions, as you know, often have a limit to how far they can go. I think it's good to make room for younger people, but we shouldn't deprive ourselves of certain useful skills either.