Staffnet

Search

Celebrate the end of the year together

The Executive Board Christmas Reception once again brought together ETH employees from various departments at the end of the year.

by Editorial team
main hall
This year, the school management's Christmas drinks reception took place in the Main Building. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich)

The Executive Board Christmas Reception took place in the Main Building on Thursday, 18 December 2025, in an atmospheric setting. Around 1,500 employees from all areas of ETH Zurich took the opportunity to get together shortly before the public holidays, exchange ideas and bring the year to a close together.

ETH President Jo?l Mesot welcomed those present and, on behalf of the Executive Board, warmly thanked the employees for their great commitment. Despite complex conditions and financial challenges, ETH Zurich had been very successful in 2025. As examples, he cited the exceptionally large grant for the ETH Heilbronn site, the 100 million donation from the J?rg G. Bucherer Foundation for a new Earth observation centre, and the founding of the Albert Einstein School of Public Policy, which aims to strengthen the dialogue between science and politics.

Afterwards, the guests gathered for drinks and snacks. Over food and drinks, many conversations took place across subject and departmental boundaries. The event provided an opportunity for encounters, reflections on an intense year and personal conversations in a relaxed, festive atmosphere.

The Executive Board Christmas Reception has been a fixture in the ETH calendar for many years. Once again, it was clear that personal exchanges and pausing to reflect together at the end of the year are highly valued by the ETH community.

Impressions of the 2025 Christmas Reception

The main hall quickly filled with guests engaged in lively conversation. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) The large disco ball, together with the rest of the lighting, created a festive atmosphere in the main hall. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) ETH President Jo?l Mesot during his short speech at the start of the Christmas Drinks Reception. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) Afterwards, food and drinks were served. As last year, the Christmas Drinks Reception was vegetarian and vegan, in line with the Gold Sustainable Event Label standard. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) Some guests wore Christmas jumpers. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) Festive headwear was also frequently seen in the crowd. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) DJ Nameless provided the perfect music to create a great atmosphere at the event. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) Jo?l Mesot and Thomas Zurbuchen, Head of ETH Zurich Space, in conversation with Annette Oxenius, Vice President for Research. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) Good atmosphere among the guests. (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich) All in all: a worthy end to the year event!
 (Image: Alessandro Della Bella / ETH Zurich)

Highlights from the past year

ETH members provided numerous highlights in 2025 – discover a selection of them in our review of the year.

Note on the translation

This text has been translated for your convenience using a machine translation tool. Although reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, it may not be perfect. If in doubt, please refer to the German version.

Should you come upon significant translation mistakes, please send a short message to so that we can correct them. Thank you very much.

Always up to date

Would you like to always receive the most important internal information and news from ETH Zurich? Then subscribe to the "internal news" newsletter and visit Staffnet, the information portal for ETH employees.

Similar topics

JavaScript has been disabled in your browser