Franscini and the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology: The Beginnings of Swiss Science Policy

Abstract

To a Swiss scientist Stefano Franscini is an important personality. First, because statistical science is one of the fundamental bases on which we construct scientific theories or by which we try to prove them experimentally. Second, because it gives me an opportunity to sketch the main features of an exceptional man who had a profound influence on the Canton of Ticino and played a pivotal role in the creation of the Swiss Polytechnical Institute, now the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology. Without Stefano Franscini’s influence, we would not be meeting here today, since our pathways lead us from the broad fields of statistical science and the austere buildings of the Institutes of Technology to a place with such a telling name — Monte Verità — the mountain of truth.