My surname originates from the town Homorod in Siebenbürgen (Transylvania); allegedly it derives from Saint Servatius (in some mysterious ways). Persoanlly, I prefer to think that it derives from Cerberus, the multi-headed dog which guards the gates of the underworld.

There seems to be some confusion in the English-speaking world as to how pronounce my surname: most commonly it is pronounced as 'Zurbees' (which is bad) or 'Zurbs' (which is worse). The correct pronounciation is 'Zerbes', where both 'e' are pronouced as in 'get', and the 'Z' is pronounced as the 'ts' in 'tsar'.

To help with the pronounciation, one could write it (French-style) as 'Zerbès'. This may not be correct, but it is an acceptable approximation.

Given my Transylvanian origins, I have been asked on several occasions whether or not I like garlic. The answer is yes, I often use garlic in my cooking. It is true however that my father had a strong aversion to garlic. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

I recently found out that not only my English colleagues are confused about my surname: I credit Vladimir Dokchitser for immortalising this autotranscript from the conference in memory of Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer.

I also learnt from my student Filip Kovacevic that there exists an English translation of my surname: this is how I was listed on an ETH website.