Albert Eschenmoser (1925–2023) Autobiography Chapter 5: Emeritus

In March 1992, Masahiro Murakami, my last postdoc from Japan, returned home. In May 1992, two new postdocs arrived; they were students of Christian Noe, who himself had been my postdoc in the late 1970s and became, in 1991, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry in Frankfurt. At ETH, the “blade of the retirement guillotine” struck me in October 1992: retirement age for emeriti, 67 years. Ruzicka and Prelog retired at 70, yet I was still lucky, because some time later, retirement age at ETH dropped to 65. One of the perhaps most relevant contributions my research group managed to achieve was launched when I was about 75. My younger professor colleagues were gracious after my retirement; they left me my office for the time being and provided me with a laboratory in the old building, where I could continue my work with a small Emeritus Crew. Most fortunately, my secretary, Hermie Zass-­Gächter, stayed on; her husband Engelbert had, meanwhile, become a self-taught expert in the field of chemical informatics and an indispensable teacher and advisor for doctoral students at the LOC. My three last doctoral students, Reto Fischer [199], Andreas Helg [198], and Katrin Groebke [200], had started their doctoral work in 1989 and submitted their theses in 1992 and 1993, respectively. [...] Note: This is the opening passage of the chapter.