Male allies of women in STEMM: The legacy of Werner Stumm as a champion for women
In honor of what would have been his 100th birthday, we tell the story of how one man made a huge impact on both of our careers and served as a key supporter of women in environmental science and engineering.
By Patricia A. Maurice and Janet G. Hering
28 May 2024, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11189985
Werner Stumm: A towering figure
Swiss professor Dr. Werner Stumm, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2024, is revered by many as one of the founders of aquatic chemistry, environmental engineering, and environmental surface chemistry. The (co-)author of over 300 papers and more than a dozen books, he is perhaps best known for the classic text Aquatic Chemistry, coauthored with his former graduate student, James ‘Jim’ Morgan. Fifty years after publication of its first edition, this text remains an important reference in the field. After about a decade and a half as a professor at Harvard, Werner moved back to Switzerland as a professor of aquatic chemistry at ETH Zurich and director of EAWAG, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. Under Werner’s visionary direction, EAWAG grew to be the preeminent center for multidisciplinary research in environmental science and engineering, with dual foci on advancing scientific knowledge and applying science and technology in the service of society. Werner’s contributions were an important basis for the designation of EAWAG as a Chemical Landmark in 2024 [1]. Both Janet and Patricia participated in an event to mark this occasion and celebrate Werner’s life and work [2].
Werner was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including: the American Chemical Society’s Monsanto Prize for Pollution Control in 1977, the Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society in 1998, and the Stockholm Water Prize in 1999 [3]. In 1991, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering [3]. When he passed away in 1999, Werner was remembered as a towering figure and as a role model for how a scientist and engineer can be a devoted educator, a groundbreaking researcher, and a visionary leader.
While Werner Stumm is widely revered for the many accomplishments outlined above, we remember him fondly for the incredible generosity he showed to each of us. Our experiences illustrate his dedication to helping advance the careers of women in environmental science and engineering.
An ally for women in changing times
Patricia: I first met Werner at a short course when I had to step in at the last minute, at the end of my first year of graduate studies (at Stanford), to give an hour-long Mineralogical Society of America short-course talk. After the seminar, I was exhausted and stressed out but he kindly invited me to share a glass of wine with a group of colleagues. That was the beginning of a father-daughter type friendship that grew during his subsequent sabbatical at Stanford. We spent a lot of time together talking about environmental surface science, including in the new Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) lab. One evening, he took me out to dinner and told me his life story. He said that when he first arrived as a postdoc at Harvard, he was the ‘trailing spouse’ following his brilliant wife, Elisabeth. He said that he had grown to regret the fact that when she started having children, his career blossomed while hers took a backseat. Because of this, he said he was strongly committed to helping women succeed and flourish in environmental science and engineering. Werner acknowledged his wife’s many contributions in his book, Chemistry of the Solid-Water Interface: “My own scientific development owes a great deal to Elisabeth Stumm-Zollinger.’
Werner invited me to spend a term at EAWAG to help set up an AFM lab there and to expand my PhD research. When I arrived in Zurich, he picked me up and handed me a huge wad of Swiss francs. (I’m sure were his own money.) He told me to ‘show the Swiss students how hard American graduate students work Monday through Friday but then to take off every Friday after lunch to travel around Europe.’ I used some of those funds to visit Paul Schindler’s lab in Berne and Udo Schwertmann’s lab in Munich, resulting in a long-term collaboration with the latter. At EAWAG, I had the opportunity to observe Barbara Sulzberger and Laura Sigg mentoring graduate students and post-docs. This was life-altering for me because I had not previously encountered female professors in my field. I also shared office and lab space with a brilliant young Bettina (Tina) Volker (now Professor at Colorado School of Mines) and met the illustrious Janet Hering, who became a dear friend and colleague. Werner even made sure I was able to attend his retirement symposium in Davos Switzerland, where I met top environmental scientists and engineers from all over the world. Most importantly, Werner’s support gave me badly needed self-confidence to pursue an academic career including, eventually, a variety of leadership positions.
From one EAWAG director to another
Janet: When I was close to finishing my doctoral studies under the direction of François Morel at MIT, Werner came through to pick up the prestigious Tyler Award for Environmental Achievement. During that meeting, I had the chance to go out to lunch with Werner, François, and members of François’ research group. At that lunch, Werner spontaneously invited me to do a postdoc with him at EAWAG, an amazing opportunity. After graduation, I moved to EAWAG and benefitted from Werner’s huge generosity in two very important ways. One was that Werner gave me the intellectual freedom to define my own research direction. I was thus able to work with Werner applying fluorescence spectroscopy to examine processes at mineral surfaces. Werner also very generously allowed me to spend substantial time working with my former PhD advisor on a revision of his textbook, Principles of Aquatic Chemistry, later published as Principles and Applications of Aquatic Chemistry. As Werner’s postdoc, I was included in his circle and had the chance to interact substantially with luminaries like Jim Morgan, Jerry Schnoor, and Charlie O’Melia. I was welcomed to attend the gatherings that Werner and his wife Elisabeth generously held at their apartment, many of which were immediately before or after the wonderful workshops that Werner organized. EAWAG was a unique place because of Werner’s commitment to interdisciplinary research that both advanced fundamental knowledge and was applied in the service of society. When, after a faculty career at UCLA and Caltech, I became director of EAWAG (and professor at ETH Zurich and EPFL), I was able to build upon the incredible foundation Werner – as well as his predecessors and successor as director – had built at EAWAG.
Collaborations with Laura Sigg and Barbara Sulzberger
As director of EAWAG, Werner Stumm fostered the careers of many female students, postdocs, scientific collaborators, and faculty. An early example of Werner’s mentorship and sponsorship was the stellar career of Laura Sigg, a long-time senior scientist and research group leader at EAWAG, an adjunct professor at ETH Zurich, and, for many years, and associate editor for Environmental Science & Technology. Laura and Werner co-authored the textbook Aquatische Chemie, which was later published in French as Chimie des milieux aquatiques and is now, with co-author Philippe Behra, in its 5th edition. Laura also contributed a chapter to Werner’s book Chemistry of the Solid-Water Interface. In addition to conducting her individual research, Laura accompanied Werner on field expeditions to Lake Cristallina in the Italian-speaking regions of Switzerland. Another frequent participant on these trips was Barbara Sulzberger, who was recruited to Eawag by Werner for her expertise in photochemistry. Barbara contributed a chapter on heterogeneous photochemistry to Werner’s book. Like Laura, Barbara had a very successful career as a senior scientist and research group leader at EAWAG. She was also a lecturer at ETH Zurich and served as editor in chief for the journal Aquatic Sciences – Research Across Boundaries. Both Laura and Barbara were role models and collaborative colleagues for Janet when she was a postdoc with Werner. Although Laura retired before and Barbara just as Janet joined EAWAG as its director, their professional collaboration and personal friendships still continue today.
A call to acknowledge and thank our allies
In addition to Werner Stumm, many male mentors, administrators, friends, and colleagues (and in Patricia’s case, her husband) helped to advance our careers. As editors of this blog series for senior women leaders in STEMM, we want to be sure to acknowledge and thank the many men – and women – who have helped us along the way. We invite our readers to take time to thank your mentors, colleagues, family and friends who have provided support through your leadership journey.
A few questions to stimulate thought and discussion:
· Who has helped you in your career path, and have you thanked them lately?
· As a senior woman leader, what are you doing to help advance the careers of more junior women in STEMM?
· What else can you do, today, to help ‘pay it forward’?
Notes and references
[1] “Eawag has been singled out for the Chemical Landmark distinction”, Eawag News, https://www.eawag.ch/en/info/portal/news/news-detail/eawag-has-been-singled-out-for-the-chemical-landmark-distinction/
[2] A video of the event, in which both Janet and Patricia participated, is available online at: https://www.eawag.ch/repository/scnat/20240228_chemical_landmark.html
[3] “Werner Stumm: 1924-1999,” by James J. Morgan, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2002. Memorial Tributes: Volume 10. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10403.