ABSTRACT
In September 1952, I passed my high-school-leaving certificate and just a few weeks later, embarked upon my degree in chemistry at ETH Zurich. But it was a year before this that I became sure of the path I wished to tread. Thanks to my father’s contacts, I was able to get an internship in the laboratory at the Hovag wood saccharification plant in Ems, which would later become Ems-Chemie. This company in the mountainous canton of Graubünden used to convert vast quantities of local waste wood into ethyl alcohol, which during the Second World War was added to petrol – then a scarce commodity – as a fuel additive. In the post-war years, Hovag was a prestigious company, because in Swiss people’s eyes, the saccharification of wood was seen as a key element in what was termed as the country’s “intellectual national defense”, as it helped maintain Switzerland’s independence.
