ETH News

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.

A new model designed by ETH Zurich researchers measures how flexible medication distribution systems are in real time. It shows that supply shortages can be eased if pharmaceutical wholesalers coordinate their inventories and reroute scarce products as flexibly as possible along existing supply chains.

Malte Toetzke calls for more ambitious standards in the voluntary carbon offset market. While this would lead to fewer projects getting funded, the benefit for the climate would be greater overall. 

Security of energy supply in a fossil-free Switzerland is feasible and affordable according to a new white paper from an expert group at the Energy Science Center. It will require increased production of renewables and efficient energy trading with neighbouring countries.

Life is a constant stream of decisions that pit sober reflection against powerful emotions, conscious deliberation against gut instincts. Using complex models and sophisticated experiments, ETH researchers study how we combine these different decision-making strategies.

There has been a great deal of media focus on the near-total lack of snow in Swiss ski resorts at the beginning of the year. Sonia Seneviratne explains why we will have to get used to this scenario and what needs to be done about it.

Oil and gas prices are currently on the rise, raising questions about the security of Switzerland’s energy supply. In a policy brief, researchers from the Energy Science Center at ETH Zurich have now shown what Switzerland can do to make its energy system independent of fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas.

Two-thirds of the world's population still lives on less than ten International Dollars a day. Although global inequalities remain gigantic, Adina Rom is convinced that living conditions can be sustainably improved for all.

ETH researchers have shown that the Swiss population is willing to pay more to reduce food waste. It is in favour of government regulations that set strict reduction targets and ensure transparent monitoring of implementation.

How can we decarbonise our economy by 2050? ETH Zurich Professor Tobias Schmidt argues that the answer lies in a radical technological transformation. He describes his journey from engineer to policy researcher – and his determination to build bridges between science and policy.

In the largest worldwide pricing experiment to date, researchers have demonstrated that road users change their behavior when they must pay for the social and environmental effects of their transportation. The study was led by researchers from the University of Basel, ETH Zurich and ZHAW.

Scientists at ETH Zurich have leveraged big data from recruitment platforms and machine learning to study hiring discrimination. They show that discrimination against immigrants depends, among other things, on the time of day; and that both men and women face discrimination.

ETH researchers have used an experiment in a simulated group office environment to show for the first time that the body produces more stress hormones when people are repeatedly interrupted at work. And yet the subjects did not experience an equal rise in their consciously perceived sense of psychological stress.

Roger Wattenhofer is convinced that the digital currency CBDC will completely replace cash rather sooner or than later, as the new electronic payment method offers many advantages.

Lorenz Keysser believes that in order to overcome ecological crises, we must recognise affluence as a main driver and fundamentally reconsider our economy and lifestyle.

Rather than delaying the much-needed restructuring, we should use recovery programs to reset the economy on a sustainable footing, urges Jochen Markard.

For close to two months now, many of us have been working almost entirely from home. And it’s going far better than some people anticipated. What has now become normal will change the working world profoundly, believes Gudela Grote.

With many of us thrown into an unusual work situation, now’s a good moment to think about boundaries, says Gudela Grote.

The year 2019 has certainly been a busy one at ETH. A new president took office and the second Sci-Tech Oscar was awarded, along with other major prizes, but there were also plenty of inventions and topics for discussion.

Dominik Hangartner, a political scientist at ETH Zurich, has received one of Switzerland’s most prestigious science awards. The National Latsis Prize has recognised the quality of Hangartner’s research on migration and its importance for public policy. We sat down with Hangartner to find out what drives him and what he finds so exciting about turning research into concrete policies.

Renewable energy has become competitive – and one often-overlooked reason is the reduced cost of financing. Researchers from ETH Zurich and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have modelled different scenarios in order to investigate the impact of rising interest rates on renewable energy.

She was involved in developing the world’s most accurate clock, and now she helps companies adopt more sustainable business practices: Petrissa Eckle, Executive Director of the Sustainability in Business Lab at ETH Zurich.

CO₂-neutral synthetic fuels are technically feasible today and the best promise for decarbonizing aviation. The right policy instruments could turn promise into reality, writes Anthony Patt.

Rafael Polanía and his team of ETH researchers have developed a computer model capable of predicting certain human decisions. With it, researchers can predict for example which food someone in a supermarket will choose to buy – valuable information for marketing and health.

Climate policy is most effective when it helps people use alternative energy sources, rather than when it makes fossil energy more expensive, argue Anthony Patt and Johan Lilliestam.

Flying is too cheap, reckons Renate Schubert. If fuel tax, CO₂ tax and VAT were charged, air tickets would be more expensive and there would be fewer false incentives.

More than half of foreign employees in Switzerland feel well-integrated in their work environment. Language difficulties serve as one of the main reasons for a lack of integration. This is concluded by the latest issue of the Swiss HR Barometer issued by the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and the Universities of Lucerne and Zurich.

Until you've lost your reputation … Unlike the saying, you do have something left to lose. On the contrary, reputational loss is costly. Students have proved that through business-based risk analyses.

After 29 years of service, Paul Embrechts of the Department of Mathematics at ETH Zurich is being conferred emeritus status. What was his time at ETH like and what does he have planned for his retirement? ETH News presents a portrait of a researcher who has dedicated his life to studying risk.

Players in the energy industry and the policy domain often depend on forecasts. A closer look reveals that these predictions sometimes fall wide of the mark. Underestimating innovation dynamics is one reason why.

Switzerland’s economy is facing some tough challenges: technologies are developing rapidly, processes are being amalgamated both inside and outside production facilities, and business units are becoming increasingly interconnected. This means businesses need to constantly adapt. The issue has been taken up by researchers from the Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation and from the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, both at ETH Zurich.

Every fourth employee regards promises made by the company they work for as having been broken and every third is not satisfied with their relationship to their superior and with their co-workers. This is shown by the current results of the Swiss Human Relations Barometer of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich.

Die Energiewende tritt in eine neue Phase. Es geht nicht mehr nur um den Ausbau erneuerbarer Alternativen, sondern um das Überleben oder den Niedergang bislang dominierender Akteure und Technologien. Dieser Phasenübergang fordert Wirtschaft, Politik und Forschung.

Die Schweizer Wasserkraft darbt. Die Ursache dafür sind letztlich Verzerrungen im europäischen Strommarkt. Nun diskutiert die Politik Subventionen für die Grosswasserkraft. Allfällige Rettungsaktionen sollten berücksichtigen, dass die Wasserkraftwerke noch Sparpotenzial bei den Kosten aufweisen.

Derzeit findet die vierte Nachhaltigkeitswoche an fünf Zürcher Hochschulen statt. Für jeden Tag halten die Organisatoren eine zentrale Forderung bereit – die vom Montag lautet: Mehr wachstumskritische Wirtschaftstheorien zu lehren und erforschen. An einem Podium zum Thema diskutierten Fachleute darüber, ob Wachstum erstrebenswert sei.

Klimaneutrale Produkte sind beliebt: Entsprechende Label beruhigen das ökologische Gewissen und versprechen, die nachhaltige Entwicklung ärmerer Länder durch Reduktionsprojekte vor Ort zu fördern. Doch ist die CO₂-Kompensation im Ausland nach den Klimaverhandlungen in Paris überhaupt noch zeitgemäss?

FOEN director Bruno Oberle, environmental engineer Stefanie Hellweg and economist Lucas Bretschger discuss ways to make resource consumption more ecofriendly, both in Switzerland and around the world.

Faster, more global, more complex – innovation and product cycles are constantly changing. A study conducted by the Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation at ETH Zurich found that the best way to keep up with the competition is sharing knowledge within a business cluster.

At its meeting of 8/9 July 2015, the ETH Board appointed six professors at ETH Zurich in accordance with the application submitted by ETH Zurich President Lino Guzzella.

The Department of Management, Technology and Economics (D-MTEC) is celebrating its tenth anniversary. In both its research and teaching, the department explores the interfaces between technology and economics. Graduates with in-depth knowledge in these areas are in high demand on the labour market.

A law professor from ETH Zurich and an economist from MIT have been studying how a court ruling on the use of trademarks as keywords in Internet advertisements affects user behaviour – a case of big data with an interesting beginning and potential.

Avaloq CEO Francisco Fernandez is bursting with ambition. Despite quadrupling his company’s turnover and staff since the beginning of the financial crisis, he  refuses to rest on his laurels. His mission: a total rethink of banking, and developing the best solutions for the industry.