ETH News

Since the 1980s, it’s been known that a mysterious contaminant forms in chloraminated drinking water, but only now has a Swiss-American research team been able to identify the unknown product in US drinking water systems.

Vice President of Research Christian Wolfrum is leaving ETH as of 1 July 2025 to take up a new academic challenge: he is to become Deputy President and Provost responsible for all academic matters at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore).

The coloured Cube has been around for 50 years. Its inventor, Ernő Rubik, celebrated his 80th birthday this year. At the invitation of the ETH Department of Mathematics, he spent some time in Zurich to discuss the fascination of the Rubik’s Cube with researchers, students and children.

The XPRIZE Rainforest competition acknowledged ETH Zurich-led team for its development and deployment of novel, autonomous technologies that enable near real-time insights about biodiversity.

As part of a two-day state visit, President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel and President of the Swiss Confederation Viola Amherd visited ETH Zurich. The two leaders attended the Swiss-Czech Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Forum.

ETH Zurich has once again been recognised as one of the world’s top universities in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings. The rankings also identify areas where the university has potential for further development.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have been working with researchers from Ukraine and Germany to investigate how to rebuild Ukraine’s destroyed energy infrastructure based on renewable energy. They have determined that solar and wind energy would quickly deliver a distributed power supply system and prevent corruption.

Researchers at ETH Zurich and The Chinese University of Hong Kong have succeeded for the first time in using remote control to perform a magnetic endoscopy on a live pig. The researchers controlled the probe from Zurich while the animal was on the operating table in Hong Kong.

Tartan track instead of therapeutics. Rowing technique instead of control technology. Three students from ETH Zurich are taking part in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Get to know them in these short portraits.

When the Earth’s ice masses melt, the way the planet rotates also changes. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now been able to show how climate change is altering the Earth’s axis of rotation and the length of the day. The speed of rotation, which was hitherto mainly influenced by the moon, will now also depend much more on the climate.

The war in Ukraine is also a war for soil. Sebastian Dötterl, Professor for Soil Resources at ETH Zurich explains what makes Ukrainian soil so valuable and why it will become even more geopolitically significant.

ETH researchers are developing a process inspired by nature that efficiently recovers europium from old fluorescent lamps. The approach could lead to the long-awaited recycling of rare earth metals.

This year’s European Hyperloop Week is being held in Zurich. Student engineering teams will present their prototypes to a jury and compete against each other in different categories. ETH Zurich is represented with the Swissloop project.

An international team of researchers combine orbital imagery with seismological data from NASA’s Mars InSight lander to derive a new impact rate for meteorite strikes on Mars. Seismology also offers a new tool for determining the density of Mars’ craters and the age of different regions of a planet.

Rasmus Kyng has written the near-perfect algorithm. It computes the maximum transport flow at minimum cost for any kind of network – be it rail, road or electricity – at a speed that is, mathematically speaking, impossible to beat.

Manu Kapur has been Director of the Singapore ETH Centre (SEC) since the beginning of the year. In this interview, he talks about which research programmes will be continued in Singapore, which new programmes will be created, and how researchers from across the ETH Domain can get involved in the SEC.

Using a special wafer-thin gold membrane, ETH researchers have made it significantly easier to study surfaces. The membrane makes it possible to measure properties of surfaces that are inaccessible to conventional methods.

The Gloria Cube is ETH Zurich’s newest building in the Zurich City university district. Teaching, research and translation are all carried out in the service of health and medicine here. At the end of last week, ETH Zurich celebrated the laboratory and research building’s inauguration.

ETH Zurich maintains its excellent ranking from the previous year in the QS rankings just published. Alongside top scores for its academic reputation and international outlook, the university’s efforts in the area of sustainability have also helped it to retain seventh place. The faculty-student ratio remains the indicator in which the university scores lowest.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) unveiled its 2024 World University Rankings by Subject. ETH Zurich landed with 3 subjects in the top spot. A further 14 placed within the top ten in the world.

Two years ago, Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine. One direct consequence of the conflict is the destruction of buildings and infrastructure. Now an exhibition in the ETH Main Building entitled “ETH with Ukraine” is showing how buildings, facilities and the environment in Ukraine can be protected or restored.

ETH Zurich will join the League of European Research Universities (LERU) on 1 January 2024. This will boost its networking with the European university landscape.

ERC Synergy Grants have been awarded to Barbara Treutlein from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering and Nicolas Noiray from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, together with their European partners.

Nothing less than the future of the democratic world was the topic of the visit of Moldovan President Maia Sandu to ETH Zurich. Together with Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation, she took part in a panel discussion in the Audi Max yesterday.

They set out to study the Congo Basin’s carbon cycle and in the process have become aware of one of the world’s darkest blackwater rivers: the Ruki. In the first study on this major jungle river, an international research team led by ETH Zurich explains how this blackness comes about and what it says about the river system’s carbon balance.

ETH Zurich and the United Nations have confirmed their desire to work together more closely by signing a memorandum of understanding. The partnership is intended to support the development of technology-based social innovations for addressing global challenges.

ETH Professor Sonia Seneviratne has been elected as Vice-Chair of the Working Group I of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In order to take on this new responsibility, she is stepping down as Associate Vice President for Sustainability at ETH Zurich. In this interview she talks about her old and new positions.

Professors Tanja Stadler and Barbara Treutlein awarded the Cloëtta Jubilee Prize for their outstanding achievements in biomedical and developmental biology research.

ETH Zurich maintains its top ranking in 11^th place on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2024.

Through a new bilateral carbon trading pact, Switzerland is poised to fund thousands of household biogas reactors in Malawi. Marc Kalina has worked with biogas projects across Southern Africa and explains why they often fail to make their promised impact.

The 55th International Chemistry Olympiad ended with a closing ceremony on Monday afternoon, 24 July. Out of 348 participants, 217 were awarded gold, sil-ver, or bronze medals. The Swiss team took home an "honourable mention."

A research team from ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI together with the Baden Cantonal Hospital and the University Hospital Zurich wants to improve a method for diagnosing breast cancer.  

ETH Zurich will host the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) between 16 and 25 July. More than 300 young scientists from some 90 countries are expected to participate. This is the first time that Switzerland is hosting the event.

ETH Zurich has moved up two positions to take seventh place in the current QS Rankings. This confirms its top position in continental Europe due in large part to its citations per faculty and academic reputation. For the first time, the rankings took into account the metrics graduates’ employment outcomes, sustainability and international research network.

Today, the latest animated film Elemental from Walt Disney Studios and Pixar Animation Studio is released in Swiss cinemas. The film revolves around the fiery Ember, who lives in Element City – a place where fire, water, earth and air beings live. The film is not only made in Hollywood, but also enabled by ETH technology.

When microorganisms break down organic material in the soil, they actively release CO₂ into the atmosphere. This process is called heterotrophic respiration. A novel model shows that these emissions could surge by up to 40 percent by the end of the century – most significantly in the polar regions.

John von Neumann was one of the most important mathematicians and computer pioneers of the 20th century – and an ETH alumnus. He began his studies in chemistry here one hundred years ago. ETH Professor Benjamin Sudakov pays tribute to a mathematical legacy at a symposium.

ETH Zurich researchers have found that droughts and land water variability have had an increasing effect on the carbon cycle in the tropics over the last sixty years. Most climate models fail to capture this observation. This could mean that terrestrial ecosystems could absorb less CO₂ than expected in their role as carbon sinks in the future.

In theory, quantum computers vastly outperform classical computers in terms of computing speed. For them to do so in practice, it is necessary to design more and novel high-speed algorithms, says ETH supercomputing specialist Torsten Hoefler.  

Each year, the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich analyses key geopolitical trends. Oliver Thränert, head of the think tank at the CSS, explains which new developments will impact global affairs. A conversation on European security and China as a challenge to the transatlantic alliance.

In the latest QS rankings by subject, ETH ranks among the top ten in 16 disciplines. In the earth sciences, it comes in first place.

A research collaboration led by ETH Zurich and MIT will receive a further USD 15 million from the New York-based Simons Foundation to investigate the behaviour of marine bacteria and microalgae. The research will focus on microbial communities that impact the ocean’s carbon cycle.

The 19 January visit of Yoon Suk Yeol, President of the Republic of Korea, to ETH Zurich focused on Quantum Science.

Are we witnessing the rise of a different, adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) that works with humans and supports them with smart decisions? Computer scientist Niao He is investigating how this kind of AI can be theoretically underpinned so that it really does provide benefits.

The ETH Board has appointed Christian Wolfrum as Vice President for Research at ETH Zurich effective 1 January 2023. In his roles as Professor of Translational Nutritional Biology, Director of Studies and Associate Vice President for Medicine, Wolfrum has actively shaped medical teaching and research at the university.

As part of a two-day state visit to Switzerland, the Italian President stopped off at ETH Zurich on Wednesday (30 November) in the company of President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis. After a welcome by ETH President Joël Mesot and some words of greeting from the two guests, researchers and students of the university provided an insight into their work.

How does water seep through porous rock? Investigating this question with a mathematical model was the starting point for Barbara Dembin’s research. The mathematician is generating new insights in what is known as percolation theory.

For the first time, farmers in the Philippines have cultivated Golden Rice on a larger scale and harvested almost 70 tonnes of grains this October.This nearly never-ending story began at ETH Zurich.

The new Enhance Alliance of ten European technical universities aims to make it easier to study abroad. ETH Zurich officially joined the alliance today.

Together with partners in Ethiopia, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa, ETH Zurich researchers are creating circular economies that use processed organic waste and human excreta as fertilizer or animal feed, resulting in higher crop yields and new jobs.

On the current list of Highly Cited Researchers, 21 have a connection to ETH Zurich. Four of these appear on the list for the first time.

ETH Zurich is at the Olma trade fair in St. Gallen until 23 October. Its exhibition “Where the future begins – research for sustainable agriculture” presents exciting ETH spin-offs and provides playful insights into modern agricultural sciences.

ETH Zurich ranks 11th in the Times Higher Education University Rankings published today – an improvement of four places.

High temperatures, fuelled by climate change, dried out soils across Europe and the Northern Hemisphere this summer, finds a team of climate scientists led by ETH Zurich in the name of the World Weather Attribution group.

Using innovative technologies and scientific expertise to help people in need is the goal of the Engineering for Humanitarian Action initiative launched by the ICRC, ETH Zurich and EPFL in 2020. Six of the projects are already offering results for tangible improvements for the ICRC.

IEEE Computer Society honours ETH Zurich professor, Torsten Hoefler with the Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award for his pioneering contributions to large-scale parallel processing systems and supercomputers. The ideas and software professor Hoefler and his group developed are actively used by tens of thousands of scientists today to power large-scale scientific simulations and artificial intelligence systems.

Densification is a fundamental principle of urban planning and development today. Nevertheless, it often encounters local resistance. A group of ETH researchers has now systematically investigated factors influencing public acceptance of densification, focusing on the canton of Zurich and six cities of global importance. One key factor: affordable housing.

A team of researchers from ETH Zurich and WSL travelled to Svalbard this summer to take a closer look at the phenomenon of Arctic greening. Lead principal investigator Sebastian Doetterl discusses research in the face of polar bears, airline strikes and war.

With the help of artificial intelligence, an international research team led by ETH Zurich has explored the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions. The information they have obtained about the area’s surface properties will help to identify suitable locations for future lunar missions.

Canadian researchers have discovered that they can stick hydrogel plasters to the skin very effectively using ultrasound. ETH Zurich professor Outi Supponen has now explained the underlying mechanism: imploding bubbles that form within the adhesive located between the plaster and the skin anchor the one on the other.

Researchers from ETH Zurich discover the first definitive proof that the Moon inherited indigenous noble gases from the Earth’s mantle. The discovery represents a significant piece of the puzzle towards understanding how the Moon and, potentially, the Earth and other celestial bodies were formed.

Most vaccines require constant refrigeration during shipment to remain effective. An international research team led by ETH Zurich has now developed a special hydrogel that vastly improves the shelf life of vaccines, even without refrigeration. The development could save many lives and lower the cost of cold chains.

Researchers of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and ETH Zurich have created the first full connectivity map of the human immune system, showing how immune cells communicate with each other and ways to modulate these pathways in disease.

Satellite data affords ETH Zurich researchers a new method for quantifying carbon mobilisation in Arctic permafrost. Their findings also reveal how summer heatwaves accelerate the rate of Arctic landslides in thawing permafrost.

As wave specialists, seismologists map the structure of planets from the information that seismic waves carry. Now, the team led by ETH professor Andreas Fichtner is also using this knowledge for medical imaging.

On 11 July, NASA published the first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. ETH Zurich Astrophysicist, Adrian Glauser was also involved in the construction of one of the telescope's measuring instruments. In an interview, he explains what he thought and felt when he saw the image.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have established that the destruction of ozone over the Arctic in the spring causes abnormal weather throughout the northern hemisphere, with many places being warmer and drier than average – or too wet.

A representative survey conducted for the first time shows: the Swiss population is concerned about global poverty, advocates for its reduction — and calls for greater Swiss engagement.

A new study shows that breast cancer metastases form more efficiently while patients are sleeping. This finding, in a study led by researchers at ETH Zur-ich, could significantly change the way cancer is diagnosed and treated in future.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute have created a risk map showing which regions in Africa may see a faster spread of infectious diseases due to lacking infrastructure.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and TU Delft have developed a model to generate hundreds of ways in which Europe’s energy system can become green and self-sufficient by 2050. They have made their results available on an interactive platform to provide a clearer picture of all the various options and their associated trade-offs.

This weekend, students from ETH Zurich won the sustainability prize at the 18^th concrete canoe regatta in Brandenburg with their boat "TruchETH". The aspiring civil engineers impressed with an environmentally friendly boat for which they combined old clothes with concrete.

The latest QS ranking places ETH Zurich ninth among the world’s best universities. Once again, ETH owes its high rank to its academic reputation and citations of its scientific publications.  

Oliver Janzer is a mathematician who specialises in graphs – that is, collections of nodes that may or may not be connected, such as Facebook users. As part of his ETH Fellowship, the young researcher has been busy solving problems that had stumped mathematicians for decades.

Words, sentences and entire books appeared all over ETH’s exhibition pavilion at this year’s World Economic Forum. In conjunction with the research exhibits on display, they framed the space for the discussion “RETHINKING LIVING”: a search for answers to the really big questions.

Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová and President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis visited ETH Zurich today. The Slovak President is currently on a two-day state visit to Switzerland and made a stop at the university.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss is one of the major private donors for Swiss science. Today, Wyss was celebrated as the laureate of the 2022 Gallatin Award of the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce.

Microrobots have the potential to revolutionize medicine. Researchers at the Max Planck ETH Centre for Learning Systems have now developed an imaging technique that for the first time recognises cell-sized microrobots individually and at high resolution in a living organism.

The war in Ukraine poses some major challenges to Swiss security policy. Andreas Wenger, Director of the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich, explains why we will need to broaden our understanding of defence in the future – and why international cooperation is becoming increasingly important.

In the race to combat climate change, sustainable transport systems can play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. As well as focusing on the technological issues at stake, current research also investigates whether there is public acceptance for the changes. Kay Axhausen explains this approach.  

In an interview with ETH News, ETH Zurich Professor Frank Schimmelfennig analyses how the war in Ukraine is affecting the European Union and whether Ukraine is likely to be granted membership.

European scientists with the participation of the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich have published an updated earthquake hazard map and, for the first time, an earthquake risk map for Europe. Switzerland will follow suit next year with a higher resolution national risk map.

Switzerland's former ambassador to the US Martin Dahinden made many exciting encounters during his diplomatic career, and ETH Zurich played a key role throughout.

An international research team use a global sampling of seawater to reveal which tropical reef fish occur where. To identify species and families, they successfully used the residual DNA shed by the animals present in the water. But not all fish can be traced in this way.

Today, the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Technology (INSAIT) has been launched in Sofia. INSAIT is a new Bulgarian Institute established in partnership with ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne.

In this episode of the podcast, ETH researchers and the former Director-General of Research and Innovation at the European Commission talk about Switzerland's exclusion from Horizon Europe.

International higher education think tank, QS releases its World University Rankings by Subject. Sixteen ETH Zurich disciplines place in the top 10 contributing to Switzerland’s place as the third best in the world’s higher education sector.

Anthony Patt has contributed to the new IPCC report on mitigation of climate change. Since the last report in 2014, the odds for phasing out fossil energy have changed; a net-zero world is achievable now, even if the way remains long.

The slab avalanche modelling that Alexander Puzrin and Johan Gaume, two researchers from ETH and EPFL, used to explain the so-called Dyatlov Pass mystery has triggered a variety of responses around the world. In a follow-up article, the two researchers reflect on the impact of their research findings in science and the media and describe the follow up expeditions to the Dyatlov Pass that supported the slab avalanche theory.

A team of ETH researchers led by Athina Anastasaki have succeeded in breaking down plastic into its molecular building blocks and in recovering over 90 percent of them. A first step towards genuine plastic recycling.  

In an interview with ETH News, ETH Professor Emeritus and former State secretary Michael Ambühl outlines possible cornerstones of a diplomatic solution for the war in Ukraine.

In her research as a number theorist, Sarah Zerbes focuses on one of the oldest – but also most topical – branches of mathematics. Her work is closely tied to one of the great open mathematical problems, the solution for which carries a prize of one million dollars.  

The Swiss Polar Institute has launched a four-year study led by EPFL in which researchers from several other Swiss institutions are investigating the impact of climate change on Greenland’s fjord ecosystems. Research groups from ETH Zurich are also involved.  

Russia attacked Ukraine on Thursday night. ETH researcher Benno Zogg from the Center for Security Studies on President Putin’s goals, the effectiveness of sanctions and the consequences of the invasion for European security.

Sounds provide important information about how well a machine is running. ETH researchers have now developed a new machine learning method that automatically detects whether a machine is "healthy" or requires maintenance.

For Didier Queloz, excellent research requires international networks and know-how. He calls on politicians to admit British and Swiss scientists to Horizon Europe.

The European research community today launched the “Stick to Science” initiative. In it, scientists call on the EU to grant Switzerland and the UK association to the Horizon Europe research programme. ETH Zurich is one of the initiators of the campaign. The university’s president, Joël Mesot, explains its involvement in an interview.

Until now, research assumed that the vast forest area of the Congo Basin, like other tropical forests, releases large amounts of nitrous oxide and binds methane. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now shown that it behaves differently: methane is released, while nitrous oxide emissions are smaller than thought.

Whether on top of a cappuccino or in the wake of waterfalls, foam is omnipresent. Until now, simulating foams realistically with a supercomputer has been almost impossible, but a method further developed by the research group of ETH and Harvard professor Petros Koumoutsakos has overcome the hurdles.

Hydropower delivers renewable electricity, but comes with massive fish mortality – a global dilemma that can only be addressed by true compromises, says Luiz Silva, and outlines how to find them.