ETH News

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.

Two years ago, Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine. One direct consequence of the conflict is the destruction of buildings and infrastructure. Now an exhibition in the ETH Main Building entitled “ETH with Ukraine” is showing how buildings, facilities and the environment in Ukraine can be protected or restored.

With its highly qualified graduates, cutting-edge research and knowledge transfer, ETH Zurich exists to serve Swiss society. The university demonstrated this once again in 2023. ETH News looks back at an eventful year.

ETH Zurich’s collections and archives include plenty of hidden treasures. Some of these are now on display in the new “extract” exhibition space in the Main Building.

Nothing less than the future of the democratic world was the topic of the visit of Moldovan President Maia Sandu to ETH Zurich. Together with Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation, she took part in a panel discussion in the Audi Max yesterday.

On 18 September, ETH Zurich will welcome more than 25,000 students for the Autumn Semester, according to provisional figures. Enrolment at the Bachelor’s level has risen for the first time since the pandemic.

With the return of the original telescope from 1864, the year the observatory was founded, ETH is taking a further step towards collecting, documenting and preserving its architectural and scientific heritage.

At Scientifica, Switzerland's largest science festival, 20,000 to 30,000 visitors experienced science up close this weekend. They exchanged ideas with around 1000 researchers from ETH and the University of Zurich, who presented their work at exhibition booths, in short lectures, workshops or on laboratory tours.

Over the coming months, ETH Zurich will be taking a particularly close look at Ticino. The University’s Graphische Sammlung is not only presenting a new exhibition on artistic activity in and around the canton of Ticino but also opening a unique exhibition at MASI in Lugano.

ETH Zurich mourns the death of materials scientist Ueli W. Suter, ETH Professor Emeritus and former Vice President Research. A personal obituary by his long-time colleague Nicholas Spencer, Professor Emeritus of Surface Science and Technology.

On the weekend of 2-3 September, visitors can experience science up close and personal at interactive exhibition stands, shows and workshops and exchange ideas with researchers. Scientifica, Switzerland's largest science festival starts on 26 August with events in the city of Zurich. Free tickets are available now.

An ETH Zurich architectural centrepiece – the machine laboratory– has been renovated. The historically significant machine hall has been extensively restored to its original condition. The renovation provides ETH with additional space for research and teaching.

The 55th International Chemistry Olympiad ended with a closing ceremony on Monday afternoon, 24 July. Out of 348 participants, 217 were awarded gold, sil-ver, or bronze medals. The Swiss team took home an "honourable mention."

ETH Zurich will host the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) between 16 and 25 July. More than 300 young scientists from some 90 countries are expected to participate. This is the first time that Switzerland is hosting the event.

ETH Zurich has moved up two positions to take seventh place in the current QS Rankings. This confirms its top position in continental Europe due in large part to its citations per faculty and academic reputation. For the first time, the rankings took into account the metrics graduates’ employment outcomes, sustainability and international research network.

The Collegium Helveticum opens an exhibition this weekend that is all about data, patterns and artificial intelligence.

The Morphs are here! The smart, eager-to-learn creatures are now waiting in the ETH main building for players to train them. "Morph Tales - Exploring Artificial Intelligence" is a new game from ETH Zurich that is fun to play and shows how humans and AI master tasks together.

Professor Wendelin Stark and Nevena Paunović were both chemistry Olympians. In 2023, they will return to the Olympiad in new roles. In this interview, they reveal how the Olympiad has influenced their lives and careers, and what participants can expect from the host country and the competition.

ETH Zurich is boosting its medical research and establishing a new site in Schlieren. It is leasing a new building (SSA) right next to the Bio-Technopark in Schlieren; the site is currently being set up as a laboratory building for medical research.

In the latest QS rankings by subject, ETH ranks among the top ten in 16 disciplines. In the earth sciences, it comes in first place.

What is it like to study computer science at ETH? 33 female high school students attended a one-week taster course in February to find out.

What is the status of equality at ETH? What challenges do our female students face? Young women provide information on International Women's Day.

The Thomas Mann Archive in the ETH Main Building provides insights into the author’s lifelong interests, works and personal effects. A ceremony to celebrate the reopening of the famous archive will be held this evening.

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science takes place each year on 11 February. To mark the occasion, we take a look back at the history of women at ETH Zurich.

The 19 January visit of Yoon Suk Yeol, President of the Republic of Korea, to ETH Zurich focused on Quantum Science.

A special year is soon coming to an end. In 2022, much has been researched, developed and invented at ETH Zurich. ETH News looks back on an eventful past year.

Detlef Günther is stepping down from his role as Vice President for Research to devote more time to his own research work. A look back over eight successful years.

As part of a two-day state visit to Switzerland, the Italian President stopped off at ETH Zurich on Wednesday (30 November) in the company of President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis. After a welcome by ETH President Joël Mesot and some words of greeting from the two guests, researchers and students of the university provided an insight into their work.

ETH Zurich offers interested students from the seventh grade onwards courses in which they can deepen their knowledge of mathematical and scientific subjects. Since spring 2021, more than 2,000 students have taken part in the ETH Youth Academy courses.

The Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich has digitised over 50,000 artworks and made them freely accessible. Linda Schädler, Head of the Graphische Sammlung, explains in an interview why she hopes to do the same with the remaining 110,000.

ETH Zurich ranks 11th in the Times Higher Education University Rankings published today – an improvement of four places.

As part of the Swiss Digital Days, an exhibition at ETH Zurich visualises the St Gotthard Pass as an animated digital landscape model for the first time. This allows visitors to experience the legendary massif and its transport infrastructure from a completely new perspective.

ETH Industry Day on 7 September offers exciting insights into applied research, industry partnerships and entrepreneurial activities at ETH Zurich. A unique opportunity to engage with ETH researchers and young entrepreneurs.

Mathematician and biostatistician Tanja Stadler will receive this year’s Rössler Prize for her achievements. Worth 200,000 Swiss francs, it is ETH Zurich’s most generous research award.

The latest QS ranking places ETH Zurich ninth among the world’s best universities. Once again, ETH owes its high rank to its academic reputation and citations of its scientific publications.  

What the “Night of Physics” really aims to do is make physics accessible to a broad audience in a way that’s entertaining. This event will be held on 17 June. Klaus Ensslin, Professor of Physics and co-initiator of the event, explains why it’s worth coming along to the Hönggerberg campus.

Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová and President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis visited ETH Zurich today. The Slovak President is currently on a two-day state visit to Switzerland and made a stop at the university.

ETH Zurich started offering pre-apprenticeships for refugees last August. How are things going for the first two participants in the programme? And what are the next steps for the pilot project?

International higher education think tank, QS releases its World University Rankings by Subject. Sixteen ETH Zurich disciplines place in the top 10 contributing to Switzerland’s place as the third best in the world’s higher education sector.

To mark International Women’s Day taking place today, Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, explains why there is still a long way to go in achieving a gender balance at ETH Zurich, and what measures are being put in place to reach this goal.  

Sylvain Lacroix is a theoretical physicist who conducts research into fundamental concepts of physics – an exciting but intellectually challenging field of science. As an Advanced Fellow at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Theoretical Studies (ITS), he works on complex equations that can be solved exactly only thanks to their large number of symmetries.

ETH Zurich has always been a mirror of new social developments. In the past 20 years, the university has become more international, increasingly autonomous, more digital – and less male.

A turbulent year is soon coming to an end. Despite the coronavirus, much has been researched, developed and invented at ETH Zurich. ETH News looks back at 2021.

ETH alumna Leonie Flückiger is blazing a trail through the male-dominated world of tech start-ups with her company Adresta, which uses a blockchain-based certificate to authenticate luxury timepieces. She hopes to encourage other women to follow in her footsteps.

During her visit to ETH Zurich, Defence Minister Viola Amherd sketched a picture of an unstable, unpredictable world to which Swiss security policy must adapt. ETH Zurich and EPFL make an important contribution to the security of Switzerland by training specialist personnel and facilitating knowledge transfer.

Buildings that own and run themselves: this idea, from the think-tank Dezentrum, was put into action for the first time at ETH Zurich in the form of a prototype. The result is a meditation cabin that shakes up the usual economic and social expectations.

Following the pilot project at the Hönggerberg campus, ETH Zurich is opening a Student Project House on its Zentrum campus. Students can now make their ideas a reality, in the heart of Zurich, and away from the pressure of grades. At their disposal are 1,200 square metres of renovated space, distributed across five floors.

Collaboration between talented members of multidisciplinary teams provides the best foundation for innovative, useful and trustworthy applications of artificial intelligence. This approach has been demonstrated at a joint event by ETH Entrepreneur Club and the ETH AI Center.

Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics a century ago. To mark this occasion, ETH Zurich has brought its most famous alumnus to life digitally. At 20 October, “Digital Einstein” will take up residence in ETH’s Campus Info Hönggerberg for one week.

A keen mountaineer, Manfred Hunziker has conquered well over 6,500 peaks. As an ETH graduate in electrical engineering, he followed a career shaped by the dizzying rise of computer technology.

Sarah Hofer is researching methods of learning and instruction in STEM subjects. She investigates how intelligence, prior knowledge and gender can affect learning methods and successful learning outcomes.

ETH Zurich ranks 15th place in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking for 2022 retaining its top position in Switzerland and continental Europe.

ETH Zurich ranked first place in the latest comparative study by WWF Switzerland on sustainability in Swiss higher education.

Scientifica will be held over the weekend of 4 and 5 September on the theme of “Synthetic naturally”. This year’s science festival from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich (UZH) offers a bigger programme than ever before, and will now also include the Irchel and Hönggerberg campuses.

Albert Einstein was a student and a professor at ETH Zurich. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his Nobel Prize in Physics. But how much ETH was there really in Einstein? And how much Einstein is there in ETH?

While Domenico Giardini, Professor of Seismology and Geodynamics, already has his hands on Mars, Adrian Glauser, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, has to be patient. Among many others, Adrian worked on the James-Webb-Telescope that shall finally launch this fall, with a delay of many years.

Elena Roos had a tough start in the world of professional sport, but her perseverance took her to the top of the international orienteering rankings. Even a global pandemic can’t stop this ETH alumna.

Athina Anastasaki joined ETH Zurich in 2019. Her research focuses on the next generation of polymers and recycling processes for these. She wants to recover all the starting materials and use them to produce new materials for other applications.

Next week, the first European Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics will take place in Zurich. The competition, which will have around 160 participants from 43 countries, is being organised by ETH students, who also came up with the original idea and are the driving force behind the event.

QS ranks ETH Zurich the 8th best university in the world for 2022. Even with a slight drop, it remains continental Europe’s best university for a fourteenth consecutive year.  

In the first Swiss National Climate Day, ETH Zurich participates with a fresh discussion format on some of the most fundamental questions of life. In addition, researchers are joining live from Bern.

ETH Zurich is committed to getting children interested in science and technology. For example, students from ETH Zurich and PHGR (University of Teacher Education Graubünden) jointly trained children for the robotics competition entitled "First Lego League". Two teams made it to the finals, one of which was received by ETH Rector Sarah Springman for a visit.

This episode of the podcast is all about astrophysics. The first Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier talks about his flights into space and astrophysicist Judit Szulágyi about her experiences at NASA.

In the latest episode or our podcast we talk to Claude Nicollier about what planet earth looks like from space, and we ask Judit Szulágyi about her experiences working at NASA.

In the last episode of the Uncertainty-Series, we talk to Helga Nowotny and Eric Burns about why uncertainty in research is eminent but at the same time increases pressure on researchers regarding their position.

The most capable geotechnical research centrifuge in Europe is currently being built on the Hönggerberg campus. It will enable researchers to simulate geotechnical structures, such as foundations, dams and tunnels, and the effects of natural hazards, such as earthquakes, landslides, flooding and tsunamis. The centrifuge itself was installed on Wednesday with meticulous precision.

The end of the pandemic is still not in sight, but we have every reason to be hopeful. How has the first year of living with the virus changed ETH? And what will endure after the crisis ends?

Gudela Grote and Nadine Bienefeld talk about the impact of the uncertainty factor on people's potential in the new podcast episode.

ETH alumna Therese Adam spent 28 years in the diplomatic service working for peace and development. Now she shares her knowledge as a lecturer.

Bernd Bodenmiller  studies the mechanisms of cancer development. The quantitative biologist uses 3D analysis and virtual reality to detect groups of cells that break away from tumours.  

Anne Lacaton, Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Design at ETH Zurich, and her partner Jean-Philippe Vassal have received the most prestigious international architecture prize for their sustainable and social approach to building design.

In the latest QS rankings by subject, ETH Zurich was among the top ten in 15 different disciplines. The university remains the global leader in earth sciences.

In the third part of the ETH-podcast series on the topic of uncertainty senior lecturer Myriam Dunn Cavelty and student Karin Holzhauser talk about cybersecurity and its role in computer science. 

The coronavirus crisis has triggered a boom in virtual collaboration as an alternative to flying. Might it be possible to seize on this experience to shape the future of sustainable mobility?

Lavinia Heisenberg has been awarded the ETH Latsis Prize for her outstanding achievements in theoretical physics. The ETH professor dreams of being an astronaut.

An extraordinary year is drawing to a close. ETH News takes a look back at the highlights that emerged amidst difficult and unsettling times, at ingenious ideas, fascinating science and solidarity in action during – and despite – the coronavirus pandemic.

The new episode of the ETH Podcast marks the beginning of a series on the topic of uncertainty. The presidents of the students' umbrella organization and the rector report on how they are dealing with the pandemic.

Changing the world with the power of ideas – that’s what Martin Bosshardt finds so fascinating about being an engineer. And no matter which industry he works in, he always draws on what he learnt at ETH.

The national library platform Swisscovery gives users access to the full range of scientific resources from 470 libraries in Switzerland. Swisscovery is run by Swiss Library Service Platform (SLSP). The project was initiated by the ETH Library.

Online teaching has been the dominant feature of the Autumn Semester curriculum. Only three weeks remain before exams start. Hermann Lehner, Head of Academic Services, explains why sitting exams in person at ETH is so important, and the relevant arrangements.

ETH Zurich intends to further expand its leading position in quantum research, and so it is planning a highly specialised physics laboratory building on the Hönggerberg campus. A generous donation from ETH alumnus and ETH Honorary Councillor Martin Haefner is now the key step to taking the project further.

On the occasion of the 165th anniversary of ETH Zurich, Rector Sarah Springman and ETH President Joël Mesot took stock of how the university has weathered the crisis until now. A few outstanding individuals were also honored during the event.

ETH students should have opportunities to realise their ideas. To meet this need, ETH Zurich is building a new centre for student initiatives and entrepreneurial talent at its Hönggerberg campus. The winner of the architectural competition is the EQUILIBRES project designed by ARGE Buchner Bründler Planer / Rapp Architekten.

Ruedi Aebersold, a professor of molecular systems biology at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, is to receive the Swiss Science Prize Marcel Benoist. Aebersold is being honoured for the part he has played in founding and advancing the field of proteomics, a branch of biology that is seen as the foundation of the personalised medicine of tomorrow.

Germaine J. F. Seewer is the first woman to hold the rank of Major General in the Swiss Armed Forces. Her new role as Commander of the Armed Forces College has forged even closer ties to her alma mater.

The latest university ranking from Times Higher Education (THE) puts ETH Zurich at 14th place in a worldwide comparison. It thus retains its position as the best university in Switzerland. The University of Oxford remains the world leader.

In the current round of appointments, four men and four women were appointed or promoted to ETH professors. Thematically, this time the focus is on mathematics and computer science. In addition, the new professorships strengthen the environmental sciences, physics and chemistry at ETH Zurich.

Twenty international teams competed in the Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge 2020, including five teams from ETH Zurich. In an unprecedented winning streak, the ETH Zurich teams not only took the top five places, but also won all the special prizes. The thorough preparation by the student organisation Cyber Group was one of the reasons for their success.

A healthcare solution born in an ETH student workshop has now entered mass production: the helpfulETH initiative is supporting hospitals during the coronavirus crisis by producing special face shields. ETH Zurich is working on the project alongside the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil (HSR Rapperswil), Geberit and Swiss Prime Pack.

The "Black Lives Matter" protests in the wake of George Floyd's death in the US have spilled over into Europe and Switzerland as well. ETH President Joël Mesot and Renate Schubert, the Executive Board's Delegate for Equal Opportunities, explain why this issue also affects ETH Zurich, and stress the importance of diversity for the university.

Maria Schönbächler investigates how our solar system formed. Her work often reminds her of the importance of breaking out of established patterns.

New research from ETH Zurich shows that holding events for new students before they enter university is an investment that pays off. Incoming students benefit from the chance to meet, mingle and form friendships at orientation events, which contributes to their long-term academic success.

In May 2020, the "Inforaum HGZZ" has moved from its previous location at the University Hospital Zurich to the "Alte Druckerei” at the University of Zurich.

Today sees the start of the pilot phase for the long-awaited tracing app jointly developed by teams at ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne on behalf of the federal government. Switzerland is the first country in the world to use APIs from Google and Apple.

Experimental epidemiology; bio-​inspired micro- and nanorobotics; ultrafast processes in materials; forest resources Management; construction heritage and preservation; social networks: the incoming professors work in a wide range of cutting-​edge research fields.

The winners of the Alfred Escher Prize 2020 are Julia Gschwind and Sébastien Delsad. This year ETH Zurich awarded the Escher prize for its second time, as one of the special prizes in the 54th national competition “Swiss Youth in Science”.

In 2019, the ETH Foundation received some 120 million Swiss francs from private individuals, foundations and companies. Donations and bequests promote new stimulus for future teaching and for launching pioneering research projects.

The coronavirus crisis forced ETH Zurich to suspend its experimental research activity and switch to virtual teaching at short notice. A report from the Department of Physics reveals the impact of the seismic switch on a practical level.

ETH students have launched a new web platform, “Students4Hospitals”. Students of all disciplines from across Switzerland can register there to be placed on a relief mission in a healthcare institution. The platform also lets hospitals register their need for volunteers.

ETH Zurich is developing its campus of the future at Hönggerberg – today, the city council of Zurich set another milestone in the development of an urban campus for teaching, research and exchange.