ETH Day 2025

G¨¹nther Dissertori has been Rector of ETH Zurich since February 2022 and Professor of Physics since 2001. As Rector, he is responsible for all matters relating to teaching as well as for the organisation and quality assurance of academic operations. He is also Deputy President. Born in South Tyrol, he studied and obtained his doctorate at the University of Innsbruck. As a doctoral student, he conducted research at CERN in Geneva, where he later helped set up the CMS experiment at the large particle accelerator. This experiment contributed to the discovery of the Higgs particle. As a lecturer, Dissertori received the Golden Owl award for good teaching from his students four times, as well as the Award for Best Teaching. 

Jo?l Mesot has been a full professor of physics since 2008 and president of ETH Zurich since 2019, where he originally studied and earned his doctorate in solid-state physics. As president, he bears overall legal and political responsibility for the university. He leads the process of appointing new professors and defines the strategy together with the school management and other ETH committees. He is also responsible for maintaining relationships with authorities, politicians and the public. Between 2008 and 2018, he was Director of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Prior to that, he spent several years conducting research in France and the USA in the field of solid state physics. 

Beat Jans was elected to the Federal Council on 13 December 2023. Born in 1964, he grew up in Riehen in the canton of Basel-Stadt. Jans successfully completed an apprenticeship as a farmer. He then obtained a diploma in agricultural engineering from the Technical College for Tropical Agriculture and, in 1994, a diploma in environmental sciences from ETH Zurich. Jans worked as a consultant in the fields of environment and communication. He lectured at the University of Basel and was a member of the executive board of the nature conservation organisation Pro Natura. Jans was president of the SP Basel-Stadt, a member of the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt, later a member of the National Council and vice-president of the SP Switzerland. Before his election to the Federal Council in 2023, he was president of the cantonal government of Basel-Stadt. Beat Jans is married and has two daughters. 

Clemens Walter grew up in K¨¹ttigen near Aarau and attended the Alte Kantonsschule Aarau. He has always had a passion for science. Clemens Walter therefore decided to study electrical engineering at ETH Zurich, which he began in 2019. For two semesters, he was responsible for IT on the board of the AMIV student association, before becoming increasingly involved in university politics as its Vice-President and ultimately joining the VSETH. Clemens Walter has been president of the ETH Student Union (VSETH) since September 2025. The VSETH is the umbrella organisation for all students at ETH Zurich and, as the official student representative body, exercises its participation rights at ETH Zurich. With 17 specialist associations and a wide variety of committees, the VSETH is also an integral part of student life at ETH Zurich. 

Heinz M. Buhofer studied economics at the University of St. Gallen. He shaped the development of the Metall Zug Group for almost four decades. He made a significant contribution to the company's success in various key positions. In 1984, he joined the family-owned company Metall Zug, where he served as CEO from 2002 to 2008 and as a member of the Board of Directors from 1997 to 2022. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Zug Estates Holding from 2012 to 2018, serving as Chairman until 2014, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Metall Zug Group from 2013 to 2019. Today, Heinz M. Buhofer is involved in the boards of trustees of various organisations in the fields of sustainability, energy and urban development, as well as negative CO?emissions, reforestation and CO? mineralisation. 

Hanspeter F?ssler studied mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich and Stanford University. As the first doctoral student in robotics under Professor Gerhard Schweitzer, he laid the foundations for the globally successful robotics research at ETH Zurich today. After completing his academic career, he joined ABB in 1989. He was Country Manager for ABB Switzerland and ABB France and, until 2010, Head of the Mediterranean Region and CEO of ABB Italy. He then became CEO of Implenia AG. He returned to ABB in 2012 and headed the global Grid Systems division until the end of 2014. Since then, Hanspeter F?ssler has been shaping companies and ETH spin-offs (including ANYbotics, Drone Harmony and Gravis Robotics) as a member of the Board of Directors. He is also involved in various advisory boards and committees at ETH and the ETH Foundation. 

Mercouri Kanatzidis studied chemistry at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki (B.Sc. 1979) and received his doctorate from the University of Iowa (Ph.D.) in 1984. He is a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University (USA) and a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Kanatzidis discovered and developed numerous novel inorganic materials: he created high-performance thermoelectric materials for the efficient conversion of heat into electricity and established halide perovskites as highly efficient materials for solar cells and radiation detectors. Kanatzidis is also considered a pioneer in chalcogenide chemistry. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize (2023) and the ENI Award (2015). 

Alexandra Navrotsky looks back on a career spanning 60 years. After completing her studies and doctorate at the University of Chicago and postdoctoral work in Germany and the USA, she was appointed assistant professor at Arizona State University at the age of 26. Sixteen years later, she moved to Princeton University as a professor, and in 1997 she accepted a position at UC Davis, where she founded an interdepartmental research initiative in the field of new (nano)materials. Since 2019, she has headed the Navrotsky-Eyring Centre for Space Materials. Alexandra Navrotsky is a world-leading authority in the field of thermodynamics of complex materials and is one of the most innovative and influential scientists at the interface of geophysics and materials science. She is also a pioneer in her commitment to diversity and inclusion in science. 

George Sterman received his doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1974. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois, Stony Brook University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 2001, he became director of the institute and in 2004 he was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor. In 2017, he served as Schr?dinger Professor at ETH Zurich. His work provides essential foundations for the application of quantum field theory to high-energy physics experiments. In 1975, he first showed that it is possible to calculate the cross sections of particle jets, which serve as a reflection of the structure of particle collisions. He then developed a field-theoretical formalism that enables systematic predictions for experiments at particle accelerators. This research contributed significantly to establishing the Standard Model of particle physics and testing proposals for its extension. 

Conceptual artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles was born in Denver in 1939 and now lives in New York City. In 1962, she began her artistic training (painting and sculpture) at the Pratt Institute in New York. With her "MANIFESTO FOR MAINTENANCE ART 1969!", Mierle Laderman Ukeles broke down the boundaries between art and work. Her works combine feminism, the world of work and the environment, showing how care and maintenance form the foundation of every society. Since 1977, she has been the official, unpaid Artist-in-Residence of the New York City Department of Sanitation. In her works, she addresses the tension between freedom and necessity, the culture of care and the work that "keeps the city alive". Ukeles' works are represented in major museums, including the Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Migros Museum, Princeton University Art Museum and the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. In her works, she asks whether we can create forms of survival that preserve freedom and individual voice. 

Alumni Award for Best Teaching 2025

Prof. Dr Taras Gerya, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Green Owl 2025

Prof. Dr Athina Anastasaki, Department of Materials Science

Luca Marie Leisten has been pursuing her doctorate at ETH Zurich under Prof. Dr Emily Cross in the Social Brain Sciences Laboratory since August 2023. Leisten received her bachelor's and master's degrees with honours in psychology and behavioural sciences from PFH G?ttingen and Radboud University Nijmegen. Leisten specialised in the social aspects of human-robot interaction during her bachelor's degree and is continuing this focus in her doctoral studies. Her doctoral thesis deals with the perception and areas of application of social robots in educational contexts. In this context, Leisten is testing the use of low-cost, modular robots to strengthen children's AI skills and investigating how these types of robots are perceived in an educational context. 

Margaritha Windisch 

Margaritha Windisch is pursuing her doctorate at the Centre for Law & Economics at ETH Zurich under the supervision of Stefan Bechtold, Professor of Intellectual Property Law. After completing a bachelor's degree in business law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and a master's degree in international and comparative law at the University of Lausanne, she is now researching key legal issues of the age of artificial intelligence (AI) in her dissertation. Using empirical experiments ¨C including with artists ¨C she is investigating how generative AI is changing our understanding of authorship and copyright infringement and what challenges arise at the interface of copyright, art and technology. In addition to her academic work, she is particularly interested in making research findings accessible beyond the academic sphere. Through lectures and interdisciplinary panel discussions, she actively contributes her insights to the social and cultural discourse on law, creativity and AI. 

Light art

Gerry Hofstetter (born 1962) is a Swiss light artist with an international reputation. After a successful career in investment banking, he founded his own marketing, event and design agency in Zumikon in 1995. Since 1999, he has devoted himself entirely to light art and, since 2003, has realised numerous projections on monuments, mountains and landscapes worldwide. Hofstetter is also a film producer. He lives and works in Zumikon (Switzerland).