April 23: World Book Day 2024 – and there are book gifts!

April 23 is the UNESCO World Book Day! In celebration of this day, people traditionally give each other books as little gifts. And this year we are giving you books from the estate of Prof. Jack Dunitz.

Prof. Jack Dunitz was a professor at the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at ETH Zurich from 1957 until his retirement in 1990. From 1992 he was affiliated with Prof. François Diederich’s research group at ETH Zurich and remained active for many more years. He died on 12.9.2021 at the age of 98 after a short illness.

Prof. Jack Dunitz experienced and significantly shaped the development of modern crystallography for more than 70 years. His curiosity and knowledge ranged from chemistry and the related natural sciences to literature, music, and art. In this respect, his private library included not only chemistry books but many other subjects.

The Chemistry | Biology | Pharmacy Information Center recently took over this private library and is now giving away to students and employees of ETH Zurich all those titles that do not fit into the collection or are already available in the catalogue.

You can find these books on our book exchange cart in front of our entrance. It’s worth coming by every day, because for two weeks we will keep adding new titles on the book trolley: international fiction - not only in English and German, but also art, history and, of course, chemistry and other sciences.

In the entrance area of the Information Center, you will also find a small exhibition of the books by Prof. Jack Dunitz, which he wrote himself and which are in the Information Center’s collection, as well as some information about his life and work.

Poster World Book Day 2024 (PDF)