Exclusive | How Nobel Laureate Kurt Wüthrich Uses Exercise to Fuel Scientific Innovation

Life is full of infinite possibilities. Kurt Wüthrich, a professor at ETH Zurich, was a passionate competitive athlete who missed his chance at an Olympic gold medal — yet went on to win the Nobel Prize. He developed the world's first technique for determining the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules in solution using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, earning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002.

Wüthrich visited Taiwan under the "Taiwan Bridge Program" (台灣橋梁計畫) and delivered a lecture titled "Molecules of Life, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Health" at Academia Sinica (中央研究院) on April 7. The Taiwan Bridge Program is a joint initiative led by Academia Sinica and partner institutions including National Taiwan University, in collaboration with the International Peace Foundation.

Wüthrich is physically robust and brimming with energy, frequently invited to lecture around the world. He currently holds professorships at ETH Zurich, the Scripps Research Institute in the United States, and ShanghaiTech University as a distinguished professor. During his lecture, he displayed a photograph of himself playing football in a FIFA exhibition match at the age of 77 — an image that left a deep impression on the audience.

Wüthrich has visited Taiwan multiple times, first in 1983 when his focus was on science policy. He toured various Taiwanese laboratories and hospitals, and recalls visits to Taroko Gorge in Hualien and Kenting National Park. In an exclusive interview with The Storm Media, he said the secret to his sustained vitality is simple: "Exercise!"

Wüthrich was born in 1938 in Aarberg, a small town in northwestern Switzerland, and spent his childhood in Lyss, a lakeside town on the shores of Lake Biel (Bienne). His father worked as an accountant. He recalls that in his youth, only about 3% of young people in Switzerland attended secondary school in preparation for university. From an early age, he was intensely curious about the world — drawn to science and languages alike, speaking French, German, and English. Learning came easily to him, and his deepest ambition was to excel on the athletic field.

Competitive sport played a central role in Wüthrich's life. At university, he studied chemistry, physics, mathematics, and physical education, ultimately earning a doctorate in chemistry. In his early career, he taught physics, chemistry, and gymnastics at several Swiss secondary schools, and instructed skiing at tourist resorts as well as swimming — work that provided a reliable income during those formative years.

As the transition from athlete to scientist took shape, Wüthrich became fascinated by how hemoglobin in the blood influences oxygen uptake and physical performance. He used his own blood as research material, publishing findings that attracted international attention. "I used my own blood to research whether I could learn from it and improve my athletic performance," he said.

"In endurance sports, the transport of oxygen in the blood is critical," Wüthrich explained. "Early forms of doping included blood doping to increase the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity. We trained at high altitude to raise hemoglobin levels; back at lower altitude, we ran faster than others because we were absorbing more oxygen — and that was legal. Later, some athletes would go to high-altitude locations, extract and freeze their own blood, then use it during competition. This is now known as self-doping, and it increases hemoglobin in the blood."

Wüthrich added: "Erythropoietin was used as a performance-enhancing drug in competitive sports to increase the number of red blood cells and improve endurance. At the time, we didn't know about these things."

Wüthrich's research not only spoke directly to what was happening on the athletic field — it also drew the attention of Nobel laureate Max Perutz (佩魯茨), who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962. Perutz, whose primary research at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge focused on protein structure, made a special trip to visit Wüthrich at Bell Labs in the United States. Perutz subsequently cited Wüthrich's findings in numerous lectures, dramatically raising the profile of the then-30-year-old scientist and generating a stream of speaking invitations and press conference appearances.

That hemoglobin study marked the starting point of Wüthrich's long engagement with protein structure research. Over decades of sustained investigation, he developed the NMR technique for determining the three-dimensional structures of proteins — enabling precise observation of protein folding and conformational changes in liquid physiological environments that simulate conditions inside the human body. The work earned him the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He received half of the prize; the other half was shared by American scientist John Fenn and Japanese researcher Koichi Tanaka (田中耕一).

Major breakthroughs in scientific research — by definition unprecedented discoveries — routinely face skepticism and criticism from the broader scientific community. Wüthrich's research achieved a landmark breakthrough in 1984, but it took several years before it gained wider acceptance. Asked by a researcher how he endured that period of doubt, he replied: "I applied for a sabbatical, left the university, and went skiing. For about two years, I skied almost every day in winter and trained physically in summer. The outdoor scenery was magnificent. At the same time, I wrote a book on the research I had done — a book that is still available for purchase today."

Wüthrich had been so consumed by scientific work in preceding years that he had gone a long time without skiing. "I went off to ski and waited for others to replicate our experiments," he said. "Eventually they confirmed it was correct."

From athlete to scientist, Wüthrich has distinguished himself across domains. Now 88, he continues to teach and conduct research with undiminished energy. "I am very fortunate to be in good health," he said. "The most important thing is to make full use of everything you have."

Asked what advice he would offer young people, Wüthrich was direct: "Do things that bring you happiness. Don't do things that bring neither happiness nor satisfaction."

He has observed that university students in Switzerland, the United States, and China alike are grappling with serious mental health challenges — including depression and a range of other conditions. "The proportion of university students with mental health problems is higher than in the general population," he noted. "This is an issue that deserves serious attention."

Wüthrich argues that as university enrollment rates rise globally, a higher proportion of students may find themselves painfully struggling to meet the demands placed upon them — and that psychological distress is one visible consequence of that structural shift.

Is there a remedy? "Exercise more!" he said without hesitation. He pointed to his own example: in the two months before his visit to Taipei, he swam almost every day — and exercise, he said, keeps him energized every single day.

Wüthrich had once hoped to become a secondary school teacher — not a scientist. "I wanted to win a gold medal at the Olympics," he said, "but that didn't happen." Yet on the path of scientific research, he achieved a breakthrough that redefined structural biology: he published his landmark findings at age 46 and received the Nobel Prize at 64. His passion for teaching and research shows no signs of fading.

The two scientists who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Wüthrich each had remarkable careers of their own. In his lecture, Wüthrich took particular care to describe their research and the paths that led to their prizes. John Fenn, after earning his doctorate from Yale University, worked for private industry and U.S. government agencies before returning to Yale. He achieved a major research breakthrough at 73 and received the Nobel Prize at 85.

Koichi Tanaka, a graduate of Tohoku University, was by contrast a largely unknown salaried employee — and one of the rare Nobel laureates without a doctoral degree. After graduating, Tanaka joined Shimadzu Corporation, where he made a pivotal accidental discovery at age 26. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry at 43.

Wüthrich noted that Nobel laureates have come from vastly different educational backgrounds and at different stages of life — a fact he sees as a powerful source of inspiration for younger generations facing an open future. He encouraged young people to develop the capacity to organize their lives as a foundation for pursuing original research, suggesting that a significant breakthrough may come at an unexpected moment and, in turn, open a path toward the Nobel Prize. （Related： Exclusive | Nobel Laureate Slams Climate Change Denial as 'Nonsense,' Calls for Science to Silence Skeptics ｜ Latest ）

From competitive athlete to Nobel laureate, Wüthrich has drawn on sport throughout his life — not only as a subject of scientific inquiry, but as a wellspring of vitality, contentment, and health. He may have missed the Olympic gold medal he once coveted, but he found his crowning achievement in the laboratory. At 88, his commitment to teaching and research remains undiminished — never tiring of either — a legendary life, fully and joyfully lived.