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IWD2025: An Interview with Professor Elsbeth Stern
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 14
For our next interview in honour of International Women's Day 2025, we had the pleasure of hearing from Professor Elsbeth Stern, a leader in her field focusing on academic learning in science and mathematics.
She recently gave her farewell lecture at ETH Zurich, at which she was a full professor since autumn 2006. Through this position, she greatly contributed to the discussion around the transition to the baccalaureate school in Switzerland.
She was also one of the keynote speakers at the ISSID 2023 conference held at Queen's University Belfast, and gave the talk: Research on intelligence and learning: How to unite estranged siblings
Could you share a brief overview of your professional journey and your current role within your research organisation?
I studied Psychology at the Universities of Marburg and Hamburg in Germany, and got my doctoral degree in Hamburg in 1986. Afterwards I went as a postdoc researcher to the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychological Research in Munich. 1994 I got my first professorship at the university of Leipzig. In 1997 I started with a research group at the Max-Planck-Institute for human development, and in 2006 I went to ETH Zürich as a professor for Learning and Instruction. I was inspired to pursue a career in this field in order to better understand the human mind, including the differences in cognitive functioning.
Are there any researchers who are women who have influenced your work? What was it about their work that influenced you?
In my generation (I was born in 1957) almost all professors were men during the time I was preparing my career. However I had a female statistics professor - Ingeborg Stelzl - who had impressed me. The work of the late Annette Karmiloff-Smith had a strong impact on my work.
What role does collaboration play in your work, and can you share an example of a successful collaboration experience?
Almost all my work is based on collaboration, as no individual would be able to run large longitudinal studies. An example is the study on the effects of early physics learning:
What do you believe are the emerging trends or future directions within your area of research?
The interaction between intelligence and learning: How do more or less intelligent people differ in constructing knowledge?
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in your field, especially young women aspiring to enter the research community?
In my generation misogyny was quite common in science. I just carried on...Find a research question you are fascinated of - and carry on.
Book she is reading: "Nexus" from Yuval Noah Harari
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