ETH News

ETH Professor Sonia Seneviratne is the first Swiss citizen to receive the prestigious German Environmental Award bestowed by the German Federal Environmental Foundation. The climate researcher shares the prize, endowed with a total of 500,000 euros, with a company from Gelsenkirchen.

The garden of the Kunsthaus Zurich now features an unusual sight: Zardoz, an eight-metre-high head sculpture that you can not only view but also enter and climb.

According to ETH Zurich climate researchers, greenhouse gas emissions from major fossil fuel and cement producers are significant contributors to the occurrence and intensity of heat waves. These findings have been published in a new study in the journal?Nature.

The exterior railings of the 125 year-old Schatzalp Hotel in Davos were in poor condition. Researchers at ETH Zurich teamed up with a local timber construction company and an ETH spin-off to find a replacement, using state-of-the-art technology.??

Nine researchers from ETH Zurich have just been awarded Starting Grants from the European Research Council (ERC). This is a positive signal for Zurich as a research location.

Students at ETH Zurich have developed a laser power bed fusion machine that follows a circular tool path to print round components, thereby being able to process multiple metals at once. The system significantly reduces manufacturing time and opens up new possibilities for aerospace and industry. ETH has filed a patent application for the machine.

Measurements analysed by an international research team led by ETH Zurich show that the global ocean absorbed significantly less CO? than anticipated during the unprecedented marine heatwave in 2023.

After 25 years at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Richard Kornfeld is returning to his alma mater. Starting in September, he will take over the operational management of ETH Zurich Space, bringing extensive experience of space missions to his new role.

Cancer cells provide healthy neighbouring cells with additional cell powerhouses to put them to work. This has been demonstrated by researchers at ETH Zurich in a new study. In this way, cancer is exploiting a mechanism that frequently serves to repair damaged cells.

After ten years, the Future Resilient Systems programme at the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) is drawing to a close. In our interview, Programme Director Jonas J?rin talks about the programme's successes and the future of resilience research.

In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the University of Bern and ETH Zurich have shown how climate change is intensifying supercell thunderstorms in Europe. At a global temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius, these powerful storms are expected to occur more frequently, especially in the Alpine region.

For the first time, chemists at ETH Zurich have successfully used extremely short, rotating flashes of light to measure and manipulate the different movements of electrons in mirror-image molecules. They showed that chirality of molecules is not just a structural but also an electronic phenomenon.

The HIL building on the H?nggerberg campus is set to become a living lab. Now in need of renovation, the building will be remodelled and extended, with completion pencilled in for 2035.?Professorships at ETH Zurich will engage with the project directly to research techniques and designs. Their aim is to advance sustainable redevelopment and retrofitting methods.

ETH Zurich researchers have found the holy grail of brewing: the formula for stable beer foam. But it's not just breweries that will benefit from these findings.

A research team from ETH Zurich has taught the four-legged robot ANYmal to play badminton ¨C including precise arm movements, quick reflexes and nimble footwork.

Science no longer enjoys unlimited and universal trust. An array of groups are questioning scientific wisdom. What does this mean for students and researchers? Gabriel Dorthe studies how trust and mistrust emerge through mutual interaction between scientific and research-sceptical?thinking.

The lecture series on aviation began over ten years ago. Today, it is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Lecturer and initiator Peter Wild explains how it all began and how the course paves the way for students to enter the profession.

The Greenland ice sheet is melting at an increasing rate, a process accelerated by glacier calving, in which huge chunks of ice break free and crash into the sea, generating large waves that push warmer water to the surface. A new study now shows that this mechanism is amplifying glacial melt.

Even large objects with several hundred million atoms can exhibit quantum mechanical behaviour ¨C without cooling and at room temperature, as researchers at ETH Zurich have shown. This yields exciting potential for new technologies.

How do left-handed and right-handed molecules differ? Researchers at ETH Zurich are using a new imaging method to visualise what was previously only measurable as an average, opening up new possibilities for biology and materials science.

Dust particles from deserts promote ice formation in clouds. This discovery highlights the importance of aerosols for understanding cloud behaviour, predicting precipitation, and assessing the role of clouds in climate change.

For more than 100 years, scientists have puzzled over whether the Earth¡¯s magnetic field had already been generated stably back in its early days when its inner core was fully liquid ¨C unlike it is today. A team of geophysicists has used a simulation to show that this was highly likely.

The cultivation of thick muscle fibres from bovine cells in the lab has long been a challenge for scientists. Researchers from ETH Zurich have now successfully tackled this issue ¨C with the goal of one day producing edible meat.

Nationalism is surging at an alarming rate in many parts of the world. Conflict researcher Lars-Erik Cederman explains the paradoxical impact of nationalists¡¯ repeated underestimation of the nationalism of others. This could also hold true in the attack on Iran.

The rapid rise in global rocket launches could slow the recovery of the vital ozone layer, says Sandro Vattioni. The problem is being underestimated ¨C yet it could be mitigated by forward-looking, coordinated action.

Time and again debris flows cause death and destruction. A research team has measured these flows of water, earth and debris with high precision. The study shows previously unexplained factors that determine the destructive force of debris flows ¨C which allows appropriate protective measures to be put in place.

Pioneer Fellow Edoardo Pezzulli is developing software that makes it possible to continuously monitor carbon storage in the ground and reduce its risks. Now he is striving to bring his technology to market.

ETH professor Ueli Maurer has provided cryptography with a theoretical basis. Now he is retiring. However, his most important research project is yet to come.

At its meeting of 9 and 10 July 2025 and upon application of Jo?l Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed eight professors. The Board also awarded the title of "Professor of Practice" once.

The Vice President Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations, Vanessa Wood, will step down from the ETH Executive Board effective December 2025. She looks back at her leadership roles within ETH and on the successful establishment of the new Vice Presidency.

For the first time, researchers at ETH Zurich have successfully produced hundreds of different types of nerve cell from human stem cells in Petri dishes. In the future, it will thus be possible to investigate neurological disorders using cell cultures instead of animal testing.

ETH Zurich and EPFL will release a large language model (LLM) developed on public infrastructure. Trained on the ¡°Alps¡± supercomputer at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), the new LLM marks a milestone in open-source AI and multilingual excellence.

ETH Zurich will receive 10 million Swiss francs a year from the J?rg G. Bucherer-Foundation for the next ten years. The university will use the funds to establish a competence centre for Earth observation with global appeal and a physical presence in the Canton of Lucerne. The Canton of Lucerne is to support the project as infrastructure partner.

A new 3D simulation tool developed by ETH and SLF researchers now allows for significantly more accurate predictions of complex alpine mass movements, supporting alpine risk management.

Chronic wounds are a major medical challenge, burdening healthcare systems with billions of dollars in costs every year. Pioneer Fellow B?rte Emiroglu is developing a new product: a selective, sponge-like hydrogel that reduces inflammatory signals and actively promotes healing.

High temperatures and more frequent heatwaves are causing many people to doubt whether high-density urban planning is still sustainable. However, building physicist Jan Carmeliet argues that even dense cities can be cool if they are planned correctly.?

Giuseppe Antoniazzi is developing a diagnostic toolkit that gives early warning of fibrotic diseases. In doing so, this Pioneer Fellow wishes to contribute to the early detection of tissue scarring, which is usually noticed too late and can barely be halted, and enable countermeasures to be implemented.

Using nuclear magnetic resonance, researchers at ETH Zurich have studied the atomic environments of single platinum atoms in solid supports as well as their spatial orientation. In the future, this method can be used to optimize the production of single-atom catalysts.

Scientists are using trapped ions in experiments to search for signs of a new particle that could help explain the mysterious dark matter. Researchers at ETH Zurich are combining their results with findings from teams in Germany and Australia.

The ETH professor has received one of the most prestigious awards in space research. According to the laudation, Thomas Zurbuchen has distinguished himself by his contributions to the aerospace community.

Following the resignation of the ETH Alumni Association Board of Directors, outgoing President Jeannine Pilloud looks back on the last two years and explains where the Association stands today.

Urea is considered a possible key molecule in the origin of life. ETH researchers have discovered a previously unknown way in which this building block can form spontaneously on aqueous surfaces without the need for any additional energy.

Florian D?rfler develops algorithms that keep our power grids stable using mathematics and, as he says, a strong willingness to take risks. He has now been awarded the R?ssler Prize, the most prestigious honour for young professors at ETH Zurich.

Researchers at ETH Zurich are developing a model in the lab made from human breast milk cells. They hope it will help them understand how breast milk is made ¨C a little-researched area of female biology.

Six spin-offs of ETH Zurich were among the 18 finalists in this year¡¯s Venture Awards. Three of them won in their respective categories, and three came in second. The Grand Prize went to spin-off MyNerva.

Why are more new housing units being constructed in Geneva each year, while Zurich is seeing a decline? Why are older residential buildings in Basel, Geneva and Lausanne being vertically extended, while they are being demolished and replaced in Zurich? ETH researchers provide new answers to the role of housing construction and its social impact.

Researchers are developing a living material that actively extracts carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Photosynthetic cyanobacteria grow inside it, forming biomass and solid minerals and thus binding CO₂ in two different manners.?

According to the recently published QS World University Rankings 2026, ETH Zurich ranks among the world¡¯s ten best universities once again this year. It took the top spot in continental Europe, with only universities in the US and the United Kingdom ranking higher.?

ETH Zurich has set up a master's programme in mechatronics in collaboration with Ashesi University in Ghana. The first cohort of students is now graduating. The project aims to contribute to sustainable industrialisation in sub-Saharan Africa.

Two biologists, an engineer, a physicist and a health scientist from ETH Zurich have been awarded ERC Advanced Grants worth around 12 million euros. The researchers are among the first in Switzerland to receive this prestigious EU research funding after a hiatus of several years.

An ETH spin-off, Swiss Vascular, has developed anatomically exact silicone models of cerebral vessels. Through this development, researchers will not only reduce the amount of animal experimentation required but also improve the standard of medical training for complex medical procedures.

What¡¯s it like to study at ETH Zurich? Once a year, secondary school students spend a week getting a first taste of university life. In this video, Juliana Pfammatter from Valais and Gianin Prevost from Graub¨¹nden share their experiences in lecture halls, laboratories and on construction sites.

Many types of bacteria produce a protein complex that injects toxins into neighbouring cells to eliminate?competitors. For the first time, researchers at ETH Zurich and Eawag discovered?that these killer bacteria also use this weapon to feed on their neighbours.

Trace metals such as iron or zinc that are stored in deep-sea sediments are lost forever to phytoplankton on the ocean surface. This is what geochemists believed for a long time about the cycle of micronutrients in seawater. Now, researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered that this is not the case.

A spectacular breakthrough in geoscience?shows that our planet is in motion even at a depth of 3000 kilometres.

On Wednesday, May 28th, the Birch Glacier collapsed under the weight of rock and debris from rockfalls on the Kleine Nesthorn. Following an on-site inspection, ETH Zurich researchers explain the background to the collapse that buried the village?Blatten in an updated fact sheet.

Physicists at ETH Zurich have developed a lens with magic properties. Ultra-thin, it can transform infrared light into visible light by halving the wavelength of incident light.

A new study with ETH Zurich, finds that if global warming exceeds the Paris Climate Agreement targets, the non-polar glacier mass will diminish significantly. However, if warming is limited to 1.5¡ãC, at least 54 per cent could be preserved¡ªmore than twice as much ice as in a 2.7¡ãC scenario.

Every tumour is unique. This makes it difficult to find the most effective therapy for treatment. Researchers in Zurich and Basel are now showing how state-of-the-art molecular biological technologies can be used to create a detailed tumour profile within four weeks, enabling tailored treatment. The study is the first of its kind in the world.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. ESA has helped make Europe more technologically independent and has played a key role in space exploration in recent decades. And ETH Zurich has always been one of its partners on its journey.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed the first technology that is able to recognise biomarkers in menstrual blood ¨C directly in sanitary towels. MenstruAI promises a simple, non-invasive method for recording health data in everyday life.

Five years ago, an experiment began at ETH H?nggerberg: researchers set up an outdoor laboratory in the forest near the campus. They used sensors positioned in trees, the soil and in a stream to study water dynamics and the ¡°old water paradox¡±. ETH News accompanied the head of the experiment, Marius Floriancic.

At the meeting on?21st and 22nd May 2025, the ETH Board appointed two female and four male professors at the request of ETH President Jo?l Mesot. The Board also awarded the title of "Professor" three times and the title of "Professor of Practice" twice.

By 2050, the aim is for Switzerland¡¯s energy system to be decarbonised and no longer reliant on nuclear power. How this can be achieved and the costs of doing so are set out in a new report by a Swiss research consortium involving researchers from ETH Zurich, the universities of Geneva and Bern, EPFL, WSL, and ZHAW.

Around 100 Bachelor¡¯s students from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering have spent two semesters working on their Focus projects in 11 teams. They will present the results of their projects on 28 May.

Tor Alva was officially inaugurated in Mulegns today in the presence of Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin and President of ETH Zurich Jo?l Mesot. The almost 30-metre-high, gleaming white tower is the world¡¯s tallest 3D-printed building.

Cities can expand their bike lane networks significantly without causing additional congestion on the roads. That is the conclusion reached by the ETH research project E-Bike City. Project lead and transport researcher Kay Axhausen explains the implications for traffic, the environment and costs.?

New smart textiles developed by researchers at ETH Zurich use acoustic waves and glass fibres to help make precise measurements. They are light, breathable and inexpensive, and offer great potential for medicine, sports and everyday life.

Aldo Steinfeld, a pioneer in synthetic fuels, retires at the end of July 2025. This provides a compelling reason to present a portrait of the engineer and to find out how you can fill up your fuel tank with sun.?

Chemist and microbiologist J?rn Piel combs through the vast world of bacteria for new natural substances to combat the antibiotic crisis. The ETH professor has now been honoured for his research with one of Europe¡¯s most highly endowed medical prizes.

Computer scientists at ETH Zurich discover new class of vulnerabilities in Intel processors, allowing them to break down barriers between different users of a processor using carefully crafted instruction sequences. Entire processor memory can be read by employing quick, repeated attacks.

Hidden beneath the Antarctic ice lies a system of lakes and watercourses. An research team, including ETH researchers, has for the first time directly observed the subglacial streams of West Antarctica. Their study shows how individual flood events influence the melting of the ice.

Teamwork is crucial for proteins. Little is known, however, about which protein teams are actually active in which tissues. A new large-scale study by systems biologists at ETH Zurich is now redrawing the map.

ETH Zurich is establishing a new research hub for augmented reality that involves close collaboration with Google. One of the ETH-Co-heads, Christian Holz, explains the importance of networking in this field.?

Researchers from ETH Zurich have carried out the largest field study to date, to find out whether heat pumps are running efficiently. When looked at in operation, it turns out that these units are often not optimally configured. Monitoring systems and legal standards could provide a remedy.

An interdisciplinary research team from Bern and Zurich has developed a method to clean urinary stents and catheters non-invasively ¨C through the skin and without surgery ¨C using ultrasound-activated microstructures.

Graub¨¹nden architect and ETH Professor Andrea Deplazes has embraced the linkage between design and construction both in teaching and practice. In the noughties, he became a pioneer of sustainable construction, epitomised by the Monte Rosa hut near Zermatt. Deplazes is set to retire in July.

ETH Zurich researchers have developed a method that makes AI responses increasingly reliable. Their algorithm specifically selects data relevant to the question. In addition, even AI models up to 40 times smaller achieve the same output performance as the best large AI models.

Over 2,700 donors and partners supported ETH Zurich philanthropically in 2024. The ETH Foundation annual report provides insights into the wide-ranging support for projects and individuals over the last year.

Traditional large-scale power generators ensure a stable frequency of alternating current in the European power grid. Now, researchers from ETH Zurich have found a solution so that wind and solar power plants can take over ¨C paving the way for the energy transition.

The planned space missions to search for remote life will provide valuable insights even if they do not find any evidence of life, says astrophysicist Daniel Angerhausen.

From bridges and tunnels to railways, Switzerland has always invested heavily in the upkeep of its infrastructure. But how does it keep everything operating safely and smoothly while also instilling confidence that nothing will go wrong?

Researchers at ETH Zurich have unravelled the complex network that cells use to repair their genetic material. By examining thousands upon thousands of genetic interactions, the team has discovered new vulnerabilities in cancer cells that could be exploited therapeutically in the future.

ETH Zurich and Z¨¹hlke have conducted a study on how companies use AI technologies. A total of 633 companies from the fields of production, technology, healthcare and finance from the DACH region, the UK and the US were surveyed. Stefano Brusoni, Professor of Technology and Innovation Management, explains in an interview where the greatest potential lies and where Europe needs to catch up.

At a ceremony in Los Angeles on 5 April, the four major experimental collaborations at CERN¡¯s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ¨C ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb ¨C were awarded the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

When it comes to getting along together, trust plays an indispensable role. While we all have an intuitive grasp of what this interpersonal investment involves, even science struggles to express exactly how it works.

For the first time, ETH Zurich Materials Scientists are measuring the rolling friction of tiny, micrometre-sized particles. These measurements permit them to better understand everyday products such as concrete.

Monuments tell stories, but not always the whole story. Professor of architecture Silke Langenberg on why we need to take a broader approach to heritage conservation and which sites also deserve protection, in this interview to mark the 50th anniversary of the European Architectural Heritage Year.?

ETH Zurich has provided its final report to the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) on the ¡°Leading House Asia¡± mandate. After more than 20 years and around 1,000 funded projects, the University has declined to apply for a new mandate period. The University of Zurich will take on the future role of Leading House for research cooperation with Asia.

ETH Zurich has fabricated the world¡¯s tallest 3D-printed structure. With the construction of the White Tower in Mulegns, researchers hope to bring innovative technologies to commercial maturity.

Trust takes years to build and seconds to break ¨C not least when it comes to international relations. ETH researchers investigate what it takes to build confidence on the global stage.

Trust in AI models is about more than just technical performance ¨C ethical principles and human values are equally important.

New miniature laboratories are ensuring that artificial intelligence (AI) doesn¡¯t make mistakes. They provide a controlled test environment where algorithms and AI models can be checked before being put to work under real-life conditions. The aim is for AI to work reliably.

The ETH spin-off Flink Robotics wants to revolutionize the handling of packages. Its founders Moritz Geilinger and Simon Huber have developed software that allows robots to work together and quickly take on new tasks.

Torsten Hoefler wins the prestigious ACM Prize in Computing for his pioneering work in high-performance computing. The fact that supercomputers have become so powerful that AI models can be trained very quickly with very large volumes of data is partly down to his research.

Life needs sufficient phosphorus. However, the element is scarce, not only today but also at the time of the origin of life. So where was there sufficient phosphorus four billion years ago for life to emerge? A team of origin-of-life researchers has an answer.

Elsbeth Stern will give her farewell lecture on 27?March. Stern, who conducts research on the topics of learning and teaching, has helped shape the discussion around the transition to the baccalaureate school in Switzerland. We talked to her one more time about her insights.

Who were our earliest ancestors? The answer could lie in a special group of single-celled organisms with a cytoskeleton similar to that of complex organisms, such as animals and plants. ETH researchers made these findings in a new study.

Switzerland¡¯s glaciers are in increasingly poor shape. If greenhouse gas emissions are not cut drastically soon, they could cease to exist by 2100 ¨C so says ETH Professor Daniel Farinotti in this ETH News interview to mark the first World Day for Glaciers.

A long-term Switzerland-wide study has found that neighbourhoods with numerous, well-arranged trees exhibit lower mortality risks than other areas. The reasons behind this, and the factors that play a role, will require further research.