ETH News

At its meeting of 18 and 19 September 2024 and upon application of Jo?l Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed fifteen professors. The Board also awarded the title of "Professor of Practice" once.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have been working with researchers from Ukraine and Germany to investigate how to rebuild Ukraine¡¯s destroyed energy infrastructure based on renewable energy. They have determined that solar and wind energy would quickly deliver a distributed power supply system and prevent corruption.

Fatima Ali Ebrahim struggled during her first year at ETH Zurich, finding lectures difficult and knowing hardly anyone. She even considered dropping out. In the video series "Student Stories," she shares what helped her turn things around and why she now loves studying at ETH.

To make informed decisions, governments and international organisations need data. The United Nations has been analysing the global availability of such data together with ETH Zurich. This has brought to light some surprising insights.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new way to break down a dangerous subgroup of PFAS known as PFOS. With the help of nanoparticles and ultrasound, piezocatalysis could offer an effective alternative to existing processes in the future.

For the first time in its 12-year history, ETH Industry Day, which aims to bring together Swiss business with the university¡¯s researchers and start-ups, is taking place in the heart of the City of Zurich. It is becoming part of Open-i, the event succeeding the Swiss Innovation Forum.

ETH Zurich researchers have developed a fast, robot-assisted printing process for earth materials that does not require cement.

Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have developed a robotic leg with artificial muscles. Inspired by living creatures, it jumps across different terrains in an agile and energy-efficient manner.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have managed to make sound waves travel only in one direction. In the future, this method could also be used in technical applications with electromagnetic waves.

Just last year, the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich AMZ reclaimed a world record title. Now, the student team has wrapped up their Formula Student racing season this year with an unmatched performance that exceeds that of all other student race teams in the circuit.

Pharmaceutical researchers often find new pharmaceutically active substances only by sifting through large collections of chemical compounds. Chemists at ETH Zurich have now made critical progress on a specific process for generating and searching these collections.

Ahead of the vote on the biodiversity initiative, basic insights on the state of biodiversity and habitats in Switzerland are being discussed controversially. Lo?c Pellissier counters by holding up the scientific consensus.

The exhibition ¡°Colonial Traces ¨C Collections in Context¡± opens today in the extract exhibition space. It explores the past of objects from the ETH Zurich collections and sheds light on the connection between the natural sciences and colonialism.

Researchers at ETH Zurich are using iron to store hydrogen safely and for long periods. In the future, this technology could be used for seasonal energy storage.

Scientists around the world can now go full throttle in their research into chemical plastics recycling. Researchers at ETH Zurich have laid important foundations for this by showing that it¡¯s all about the stirring.

Four researchers from ETH Zurich have successfully applied for Consolidator Grants funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Not all pain is the same. Depending on the cause, it requires different therapies. A team led by ETH Zurich has now developed a method that enables physicians to better distinguish between physical and psychosocial pain.

Most of a planet¡¯s water is generally not on its surface but hidden deep in its interior. This affects the potential habitability of distant worlds, as shown by model calculations of researchers at ETH Zurich and Princeton University.

Machine learning, AI and new technologies are rapidly changing industry. The CAS ETH in AI and Software Development is aimed at managers who want to make better informed decisions for their companies. It is part of the new MAS in AI and Digital Technology.

A new class of fat cells makes people healthier. The cells consume energy and produce heat through seemingly pointless biochemical reactions.

Catastrophic volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet millions of years ago shed new light on how plants evolve and regulate climate. Researchers reveal the long-term climate effects of disturbed natural ecosystems - its implications both in geological history and for today.

The brain chemical orexin is crucial when we choose between sport and the tasty temptations that beckon everywhere we turn. This research finding could also help people who find it difficult to motivate themselves to exercise.

The Department of Earth Sciences at ETH Zurich has been renamed the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, abbreviated to D-EAPS, effective 1 August. Head of Department Johan Robertsson explains why the renaming was both logical and necessary.

ETH researchers have modified certain bacteria with UV light so that they produce more cellulose. The basis for this is a new approach with which the researchers generate thousands of bacterial variants and select those that have developed into the most productive.

Southern Europe is currently battling a heat wave. Jan Carmeliet explains how cities can tackle the summer heat. It is a balancing act that calls for finely tuned measures.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have uncovered how colorectal cancer cells colonise the liver. Their findings could open up new ways to suppress this process in the future.

Earth seen from space: ETH spin-off askEarth facilitates access to satellite images for environmental and climate monitoring. It supports businesses in combatting deforestation.

Despite a wet and grey June, summers in Switzerland are getting hotter than expected. The increased summer temperatures harbour risks that we are not well prepared for, says Dominik Schumacher.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and Empa have developed a hydrogel implant that can help prevent endometriosis, a condition that affects a great many women. This innovation also acts as a contraceptive.

When the Earth¡¯s ice masses melt, the way the planet rotates also changes. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now been able to show how climate change is altering the Earth¡¯s axis of rotation and the length of the day. The speed of rotation, which was hitherto mainly influenced by the moon, will now also depend much more on the climate.

At its meeting of 11 and 12 July 2024 and upon application of Jo?l Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed six professors. The Board also awarded the title of "Professor" two times and the title of "Professor of Practice" once.

A newly developed airshield supports track and field athletes such as Mujinga Kambundji with overspeed training.

The war in Ukraine is also a war for soil. Sebastian D?tterl, Professor for Soil Resources at ETH Zurich explains what makes Ukrainian soil so valuable and why it will become even more geopolitically significant.

ETH researchers are developing a process inspired by nature that efficiently recovers europium from old fluorescent lamps. The approach could lead to the long-awaited recycling of rare earth metals.

This year¡¯s European Hyperloop Week is being held in Zurich. Student engineering teams will present their prototypes to a jury and compete against each other in different categories. ETH Zurich is represented with the Swissloop project.

A new electrolyte design for lithium metal batteries could significantly boost the range of electric vehicles. Researchers at ETH Zurich have radically reduced the amount of environmentally harmful fluorine required to stabilise these batteries.

Job platform, knowledge network, mentoring and cross-generational exchange: President of the ETH Alumni Association Jeannine Pilloud talks in an interview about the upcoming transformation of her organisation.

An international team of researchers combine orbital imagery with seismological data from NASA¡¯s Mars InSight lander to derive a new impact rate for meteorite strikes on Mars. Seismology also offers a new tool for determining the density of Mars¡¯ craters and the age of different regions of a planet.

Rasmus Kyng has written the near-perfect algorithm. It computes the maximum transport flow at minimum cost for any kind of network ¨C be it rail, road or electricity ¨C at a speed that is, mathematically speaking, impossible to beat.

Everyone talks about Artificial Intelligence but its current adoption rates are low in the Swiss tech industry, especially in manufacturing-related applications. This is one conclusion of a survey conducted by ETH Zurich in collaboration with Swissmem and Next Industries. Professor Torbj?rn Netland, responsible for the report, explains why Swiss tech companies are still faring well in an international comparison and how they can release the potential.

Why do civilians take the law into their own hands? Using Mexico as an example, ETH researcher Enzo Nussio shows how it¡¯s a combination of a weak state and strong local communities.

Manu Kapur has been Director of the Singapore ETH Centre (SEC) since the beginning of the year. In this interview, he talks about which research programmes will be continued in Singapore, which new programmes will be created, and how researchers from across the ETH Domain can get involved in the SEC.

Using a special wafer-thin gold membrane, ETH researchers have made it significantly easier to study surfaces. The membrane makes it possible to measure properties of surfaces that are inaccessible to conventional methods.

Jessica Droujko¡¯s start-up, Riverkin, measures the water quality of freshwater ecosystems and helps quantify and respond to risks such as floods and pollution. Thanks to an ETH Pioneer Fellowship, her work is now picking up speed.

Marco Hutter, a pioneer in mobile robotics, has been awarded this year¡¯s R?ssler Prize, the most highly endowed research award at ETH Zurich.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have shown that quantum states of single electron spins can be controlled by currents of electrons whose spins are evenly aligned. In the future, this method could be used in electronic circuit elements.

Eighteen start-ups were awarded prizes at this year¡¯s Venture Awards, including five ETH Zurich spin-offs. CLIMADA won first prize in the Finance & Insurance category.

Since 1991, 14 June has in Switzerland traditionally stood under the banner of feminist campaigns and causes. Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, explains in an interview why commitment to equal opportunities and gender equality is still needed three decades later ¨C including at ETH Zurich.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a cell-based bone model to help investigate the cause of this genetic condition.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences have developed a novel solution for heat pumps. Using this new approach, companies can generate carbon-free process heat at temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius while also drastically reducing the number of different heat pumps required.

The Gloria Cube is ETH Zurich¡¯s newest building in the Zurich City university district. Teaching, research and translation are all carried out in the service of health and medicine here. At the end of last week, ETH Zurich celebrated the laboratory and research building¡¯s inauguration.

The federal government has plans to tax electric vehicles to secure funding for road infrastructure. However, a new levy could delay the switch to electromobility. Alessio Levis explains how this dilemma could be resolved.

Using machine-learning methods, researchers at ETH Zurich have shown that more than half of all killer T cells exhibit nuclear invaginations, or folds in the cell¡¯s nuclear envelope. Thanks to this particular cellular architecture, such cells are able to mount a faster and stronger response to pathogens.

Cathodic corrosion protection is a widely used technique for protecting steel-based infrastructure from corrosion. ETH researchers have now clarified the detailed mechanisms involved, thereby resolving a controversial issue that had preoccupied the engineering community for decades.

ETH Zurich maintains its excellent ranking from the previous year in the QS rankings just published. Alongside top scores for its academic reputation and international outlook, the university¡¯s efforts in the area of sustainability have also helped it to retain seventh place. The faculty-student ratio remains the indicator in which the university scores lowest.

The landslide in Brienz (GR) in 2023 kept Switzerland on tenterhooks for weeks. Researchers from ETH Zurich, WSL and SLF used a model to provide a highly accurate blind prediction of where the sliding mass would come to rest. ETH Professor Johan Gaume explains how the model works and where its limitations lie.

Since 2003, when Joachim Buhmann became an ETH professor, he has helped shape the explosive development of machine learning. It is not technical progress that worries him, but how society deals with it. Shortly before his retirement, he looks back on his academic career.

ETH Zurich announces its expedition towards climate neutrality today with pop-up events by students and the first Net Zero Day. The "ETH Net Zero" programme supports the reduction of emissions by 2030 and offers people plenty of ways to get involved.

Paolo Ermanni researched novel composite materials at ETH for over a quarter of a century. His enthusiasm for materials was rivalled only by his passion for teaching. He will also go down in ETH history as the first Vice Rector for Continuing Education. To mark his retirement, we take a look back at his storied career.

At its meeting of 22 and 23 May 2024 and upon application of Jo?l Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed twelve professors. The Board also awarded the title of "Professor" four times and the title of "Professor of Practice" three times.

Walter Thurnherr was Chancellor and Chief of Staff of the Swiss Federal Council for eight years. With effect from October 2024, he will be a professor at ETH Zurich, where he will support the establishment of a School of Public Policy and contribute to a better understanding between academia and politics.

Racing cars, robots, aircraft: Bachelor¡¯s students in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering spend two semesters working on a project in teams. They will be presenting their results on 28 May 2024.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have teamed up with the food industry to produce a whole-fruit variety of chocolate. This helps increase the value creation of cocoa farming ¨C and is healthier.

Renewable energies are not the main driver of biodiversity loss. It is rather the other way round: renewables can limit climate change in order to preserve biodiversity. Cyril Brunner contextualises the trade-offs from a scientific perspective.

Medical students at ETH Zurich build a gripper hand for elbow exoskeletons in a crash course lasting just one week. This course has now been honoured with the 2024 Kite Award, the ETH prize for particularly innovative teaching.

Instead of burning coal or oil to produce cement or steel, in the future solar energy could be used for this purpose. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a thermal trap that can absorb concentrated sunlight and deliver heat at over thousand degrees Celsius.

Experiments by ETH Zurich computer security researchers showed that smartphones can be manipulated to allow the owner to ride Swiss trains for free. The researchers also highlighted ways of curbing such misuse.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have, for the first time, made visible how electrons form vortices in a material at room temperature. Their experiment used a quantum sensing microscope with an extremely high resolution.

By analysing images made of coloured dots created by quantum simulators, ETH researchers have studied a special kind of magnetism. In the future this method could also be used to solve other physics puzzles, for instance in superconductivity.

This morning at 11.30 a.m. around 100 people from pro-Palestinian, Marxist groups set up a protest in the main hall in the main building of ETH Zurich. After repeated requests to leave the building, which the demonstrators did not comply with, the demonstration was broken up by the police at the request of ETH Zurich.

Dirk Helbing expects future digital technologies to penetrate the human body even more in the future. However, he believes that society is not prepared for the risks involved. He puts forward a new legal framework to protect our most intimate data from misuse.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a safe and inexpensive device for reliable blood measurements. It works using a suction cup and could also be employed to diagnose the tropical disease malaria ¨C even by non-medical personnel.

In order to understand the Earth's resilience, researchers at ETH Zurich are modelling climate changes from times long past. And they show: Plants are not simply victims of circumstances, but have helped to shape climate conditions on Earth.

The electrification of many areas of life is leading to an increased demand for high-performance batteries. Two ETH spin-offs are making waves in this field: while BTRY develops high-performance solid-state batteries, 8inks is working on a new standard for production.

A new computer process developed by chemists at ETH Zurich makes it possible to generate active pharmaceutical ingredients quickly and easily based on a protein¡¯s three-dimensional surface. The new process could revolutionise drug research.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have engineered bacteria in the laboratory to efficiently use methanol. The metabolism of these bacteria can now be tapped into to produce valuable products currently made by the chemical industry from fossil fuels.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have studied topological effects in an artificial solid, making surprising observations. The new insights into topological pumping could be used for quantum technologies in the future.

On behalf of Raiffeisen Switzerland Cooperative, ETH Zurich researchers examined the beginnings of the Raiffeisen movement in Switzerland. Their focus was on antisemitism as well as Raiffeisen during National Socialism.

Monitoring and treating a case of multiple sclerosis requires reliable and long-term data on how the disease is progressing in the person in question. Fitness trackers and smartphones can supply this data, as a research team led by ETH Zurich has now shown.

Plants with multiple sets of chromosomes have advantages over their relatives with a double set. But why they often start out infertile was only partially understood. Biologists at ETH Zurich have now discovered a new reason for the initial difficulties.

Natural forest regeneration is hailed as a cost-effective way to restore biodiversity and sequester carbon. However, the fragmentation of tropical forests has restricted the movement of large birds limiting their capacity to disperse seeds and restore healthy forests.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way in which art is created and experienced. Are we at the beginning of a new artistic revolution? Or at the end of creativity as we know it? Adrian Christopher Notz puts things in perspective.

As part of the SpaceHopper project, ETH Zurich students are developing a robot that can navigate very low gravity environments using a jumping-like mode of locomotion.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) unveiled its 2024 World University Rankings by Subject. ETH Zurich landed with 3 subjects in the top spot. A further 14 placed within the top ten in the world.

Swiss cities are more likely to accept densification when densification projects provide affordable housing and green spaces compared to densification that is implemented through reduced regulations for housing construction. By prioritizing a socio-ecological densification, extensive planning procedures and delays might be minimized.

Juraj Hromkovic has been Professor of Information Technology at ETH Zurich for the past 20 years. During this time, he has been a leading advocate of teaching computer science in schools. He¡¯s now giving his farewell lecture.

A new molecular test method helps to prove the authenticity of works of art. The new method could also help to make passwords secure against quantum computers.

Have you done any further professional training in the last five years? If not, then one reason is probably the education system and its rigid qualifications, says Lukas Sigrist.

Public cloud services employ special security technologies. Computer scientists at ETH Zurich have now discovered a gap in the latest security mechanisms used by AMD and Intel chips. This affects major cloud providers.

Researchers at ETH Zurich led by Robert Boes are developing specific solutions to optimise electricity production from Swiss hydropower plants. This will ensure that hydropower remains the backbone of Switzerland¡¯s electricity supply in the future.

Helping to shape the digital transformation, empowering brilliant young talent and more research for the health of children and adolescents: the ETH Foundation's annual report shows what the commitment of more than 2700 donors and partners has achieved for a wide range of topics in 2023.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a smartphone app that can be used to check the authenticity of documents and other items. Extracts from the debt enforcement register of the City of Zurich are being made forgery-proof as part of a pilot project.

Environmental scientist Alice Pradel cultivates ice cores in the lab to investigate the transport and accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics. Her aim in doing so is to better understand material flows in the Arctic ice.

Renovating buildings to improve their energy efficiency is a crucial step towards Switzerland achieving its climate targets. ETH Zurich researchers can now reveal the most effective renovation strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: replace fossil-fuel heating systems and harness the potential of bio-based building materials like straw and hemp.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in detecting heavy precipitation events directly with GPS data. The results of their study could significantly improve meteorological monitoring and forecasting.

ETH spin-off Scanvio is developing an algorithm that can be used to analyse ultrasound images of the womb on an automated basis. This should enable doctors to diagnose endometriosis more quickly in the future.

We can transition to pesticide-free agriculture without converting to organic farming. Robert Finger outlines the advantages and challenges involved.

The quadrupedal robot ANYmal went back to school and has learned a lot. ETH Zurich researchers used machine learning to teach it new skills: the robot can now climb over obstacles and successfully negotiate pitfalls.

Researchers at ETH have managed to trap ions using static electric and magnetic fields and to perform quantum operations on them. In the future such traps could be used to realize quantum computers with far more quantum bits than have been possible up to now.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and KUNO Klinik St. Hedwig in Regensburg have developed an algorithm that provides an automatic and reliable method of detecting a certain heart defect in newborns.