March 2017

At the symposium “The Global Energy Challenge – A Corporate View”, representatives of international companies will present their energy strategies and visions for the future, while researchers from ETH Zurich evaluate the strategies from a scientific point of view. Christian Schaffner, Executive Director of ETH Zurich’s Energy Science Center and organiser of the symposium, explains this novel format.

ETH Professor Sabine Werner and her team won the Spark Award 2017 yesterday for their groundbreaking new approach to combating viral diseases. If their results can be confirmed, they could lead to the development of better treatments for viral diseases such as herpes.

An international team of researchers led by chemists from ETH Zurich have developed a method for depositing single magnetisable atoms onto a surface. This is especially interesting for the development of new miniature data storage devices.

The inflammatory response that is supposed to ward off pathogens that cause intestinal disease makes this even worse. This is because special viruses integrate their genome into Salmonella, which further strengthens the pathogen.

ETH researchers have received eight of the coveted Advanced Grants in the European Research Council's (ERC) latest call for proposals. For several scientists, this is their second such grant. ETH Zurich has been consistently ranked among the most successful institutions since the programme was launched ten years ago.

The ETH Zurich Foundation has an impressive year to look back on. As detailed in the foundation’s latest annual report, a total of 500 new donors became supporters of ETH Zurich in 2016.

Sometimes it’s the questions, rather than the answers, that show how the world is changing. For example, questions about the moral consequences of machines and computers becoming more intelligent. A group of ETH students have tackled this issue.

The ESA BIC Switzerland programme is starting its second round with seven additional start-ups. Amongst others, the jury was won over by "IRsweep", a spin-off from ETH and Empa. Using a spectrometer that utilises infra-red laser radiation, the startup wants to make environmental analysis from space more precise.

ETH Professor Nicola Spaldin will today be honoured for her revolutionary research in the field of materials science. In Paris, she is set to receive the L'Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science award for Europe, which carries prize money of 100,000 euros.

When a meteoroid travels in space, solar radiation leaves distinctive imprints on its outer layer. Together with colleagues, ETH researcher Antoine Roth has developed novel analytical techniques to detect these imprints, allowing the team to reconstruct meteorites’ space journeys.