Archive internal news

The official ETH app has been given a new design. In addition to the fresh look, it presents itself with an up-to-date user experience and some technical innovations.

People from more than 120 nations work at ETH Zurich. They all shape the culture and success of our university. For the next "life" magazine, we would like to focus on their cultural backgrounds - and are looking for employees who did not grow up in Europe.

Decide which internal ETH topics you would like to be regularly informed about in the future: Thanks to the new, personalisable Internal news newsletter, you can select specific topics that you want to be kept up to date on.

Do you regularly meet up with other ETH members to yodel? Do you play exotic sports such as unicycle hockey or canoe polo with colleagues? Or do you compete with each other as gourmet chefs?

Make your research easy to understand, present your findings in a compelling way and convey a confident image to the media: the Communication Academy course programme for the Spring 2024 Semester is now online.

In order to fulfil the savings targets, Corporate Communications has had internal news articles machine-translated since the beginning of 2024. In addition, internal communication is to be further strengthened via a personalised newsletter.

The 2023 Latsis Symposium will take place at ETH Zurich from 6 to 8 September. This year’s theme is how to counter online phenomena such as hate speech and fake news and how public discourse can be strengthened.  

Make your research easy to understand, present your findings in a compelling way and convey a confident image to the media: the Communication Academy course programme for the Fall 2023 Semester is now online.

The International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) is being held for the first time in Switzerland from 16 to 25 July 2023 and will take place on the ETH Hönggerberg campus. Over 300 talented young chemists from around the world will spend ten days putting their specialist knowledge to the test, compete for coveted medals and get to know both Switzerland and ETH better.

Good teamwork across disciplines and functional levels is a basic requirement for successful projects. That is true for ETH, too. For teams to work well, a respectful discussion culture is a prerequisite.

Make your research easy to understand, present your findings in a compelling way and convey a confident image to the media: the Communication Academy course programme for the Spring 2023 Semester is now online.

Every day we spend working time in meetings, conferences and discussions. A bad meeting not only costs time, but also nerves and motivation. Could general rules at ETH help to optimise meetings and make them more productive?

Rector Günther Dissertori has sent out a communication to lecturers calling on them to discontinue holding fully online courses. He explains why below.

The new life magazine for the ETH community is now arriving in everyone’s mailboxes. But this time it’s more than just a new issue – the magazine has been revamped with a fresh look, extra pages and new sections. We’ve also redesigned life to focus even more on you, our valued readers.

Moved and need to update your address? Want to receive life magazine as a PDF instead of in print – but now in English rather than German? Or maybe you’d like to display your CV to those who look you up in the directory? All of this can be configured on www.adressen.ethz.ch.

Make your research easy to understand, present your findings in a compelling way and convey a confident image to the media: the Communication Academy course programme for the Autumn 2022 semester is now online.

Are you looking for childcare? Centres operated by the kihz Foundation will have some spaces available as of August. Interested parents can find an overview of the vacancies and all information about registration on the kihz website.

ETH Zurich has been striving to increase the proportion of women in all areas for many years now, but is still far from reaching its goal, especially when it comes to leadership roles. Could a binding gender quota be the solution? Share your opinion in the next edition of life magazine!

Four years ago, we wrote profiles of couples who met at ETH. We’re now looking for friends who also got to know each other at our university. Tell your story in the next edition of the ETH employee magazine “life”!

Many of us cannot imagine Christmas without a stack of gift boxes under the tree. Others would be more than happy to bid the custom farewell. What do you think? For the December issue of life magazine, we are looking for proponents and opponents of the tradition.

Write comprehensibly about research, present results compellingly and convey a confident image to the media: starting in November, ETH Zurich’s Corporate Communications will share knowledge about science communication through a series of courses and webinars.

An anonymous survey on the personal vaccination status of students and employees has been running at ETH Zurich for a week. More than half of ETH members have already taken part. The survey will run until this Friday, 8 October.

Menstruation is a normal occurrence for thousands of the university community. In order to ensure the best possible work and study environments for their members the ETH Zurich provides menstrual products free of charge.

The technology in ETH Zurich’s laboratories and buildings is becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex. Moreover, ETH wants to make further strides in sustainability on campus, which is not possible without the latest technology. So that technical systems can be developed and maintained by a single entity, the Engineering and Systems department will assume overall responsibility for them as of 2022. The department will be headed up by Dominik Brem.

The prices for the basic menus at ETH Zurich haven’t changed since 2008. Now they are being adjusted for the start of the semester. This is due in particular to higher food and transport prices. 

For 20 years, Project Neptun has ensured that ETH members can equip themselves with high-quality but affordable laptops. The autumn sales window opens today and lasts until 4 October.

As things stand, it is difficult to predict how the coronavirus situation will develop, and so the current master plan will remain in force until the exam session ends, says Ulrich Weidmann, head of the ETH Crisis Management team, in the following interview. The master plan is currently being revised ahead of the Autumn Semester due to start in September and will probably be published to coincide with any new measures announced by the Federal Council.

In times of crisis, policymakers rely on the expertise of scientists to an extra degree. But should researchers also get involved in political debates? Or should they limit their communication to their research findings? Have your say on the matter in the next issue of life magazine!

What had been feared since the breakdown of the EU-​Swiss bilateral agreement negotiations has now come to pass. Yesterday, the European Commission notified the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) that Switzerland will be treated as a non-​associated third country for the submission of project proposals in Horizon Europe and other related programmes and initiatives. Although this status can be changed at any time, it will now apply for all calls in 2021.

Tonight Switzerland is set to play its second match in this year’s European Football Championship. Get into the football spirit and place your bets on who will win on the ETH Point platform.

Following the latest decisions by the Federal Council, the requirement for ETH employees to work remotely from home is being cautiously relaxed. The university’s own testing programme launched back in April has made this possible.

The question of whether and where we’ll be able to travel this summer is still up in the air, but one thing is already clear: every holiday needs a good book. So for the next edition of “life” magazine, we’re looking for your top book recommendations!  

The ETH Executive Board has approved a new coronavirus master plan, effective Monday 26 April. It includes more face-to-face options for students and also allows certain events to be held at the university. The Main Building will now be open at weekends as well.

Following the latest easing of restrictions by the Federal Council, ETH Zurich is preparing a new master plan, due to come into effect on Monday 26 April. The ETH Executive Board will provide details of the new arrangements next week.

ETH Zurich has experienced significant growth over the past several years, and the university's long-term financial commitments have grown in tandem. Over the next few years, ETH will need to reduce its recent growth in order to ensure that the university can continue fulfilling its core missions of teaching, research and knowledge transfer with the funds that are expected to be available. We take a look at what this means in concrete terms.

The focus was again on the well-being of ETH members in the third part of the townhall series led by Julia Dannath on 23 February 2021. Mental fitness was the main issue of the virtual event, during which the ALEA Award was also presented and the three nominees were recognised for their progressive leadership at ETH.

The second instalment of the new townhall series “Well-being in challenging times”, organised by the Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, Julia Dannath, kicked off on 29 January. This time around, the subject is physical fitness. During the virtual event, Dannath and the other participants discussed how important exercise is to our well-being.

Following the latest measures announced by the Federal Council, all ETH members must work remotely from home as of Monday. The only exceptions are for experimental work, workshops or other activities requiring on-site presence. University buildings will mostly be closed, with a few exceptions. The exam session is still going ahead as planned from 25 January onwards, with some exams sat in person.

The Zukunftsblog is ETH Zurich’s editorial platform, where ETH experts have been able to express their views on important issues surrounding sustainability, digitalisation and health. The Zukunftsblog is now opening up to include articles on any significant social issue from ETH researchers.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was not possible to celebrate the Christmas reception on site this year. However, the Executive Board was keen to see out this year together with the ETH members to say thank you, if only in a virtual setting.

The coronavirus has flipped ETH Zurich’s working and teaching life on its head. Before the second wave hit, we asked ETH members how this extraordinary year has been for them and what they hope will come out of it.

The new Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, Julia Dannath, kicked off a new town hall series on 8 December that focused on personal well-being and social fitness. Around a thousand ETH employees and doctoral students took part in the live virtual discussion.

The Executive Board has decided to continue to permit the use of Zoom at ETH, initially (for legal reasons) until the end of June 2021. However, the plan is to keep the conferencing tool available after the coronavirus crisis ends.

3150 ETH members followed the Executive Board's town hall on the new Master Plan live. If you missed the town hall you can now watch the recording.

The ETH Zurich Executive Board has approved a new master plan outlining measures designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The most important changes concern teaching, the compulsory wearing of face masks and university events.

VSETH has elected its new president, with Luca Dahle (23) from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering chosen to succeed Thierry Hörmann. Coming to his new role as VSETH president in the midst of a pandemic, Dahle would like to raise awareness of the issue of student mental health.

It might sound odd, but ETH Zurich is not just based in Zurich. The university has around 20 sites, including in the canton of Graubünden and in northwestern Switzerland, and even in Asia. They may not be the most obvious of locations, but there are good reasons behind them.

In view of the rapid increase in the rate of COVID-19 infections, the Executive Board has responded to advice from the ETH COVID task force by tightening the measures for combating the spread of the virus at ETH Zurich. The face mask mandate will be extended further, drinks receptions and other social events are generally no longer allowed and working from home will once again become the preferred option.

The Executive Board has given the green light to a large-scale project for improving accessibility throughout all areas of the university. Moreover, Manfred Sigrist has been named Vice Rector for Doctoral Studies, and the Board has taken the decision to hold ETH Week through at least 2025.

We now know who will head the two new Executive Board domains. ETH Zurich President Joël Mesot explains what this move means for professors, staff and the Executive Board.

All catering outlets at ETH Zurich will reopen again at the start of the semester on 14 September, but they will be subject to additional measures to protect against coronavirus. The caterers have developed a tailored safety concept to keep the risk of infection as low as possible.

Emergency mode at ETH has led to many changes: from teleworking and virtual lectures to online events, concepts that were still in their infancy a few months ago have now become the new normal. In this interview, Lukas Vonesch, Head of Human Resources, speaks about the hectic changeover period, the challenges that have been mastered, and how lockdown has opened up new ways of working.

Atmospheric physicist Ulrike Lohmann will take over from Edoardo Mazza as President of the Lecturers’ Conference (KdL). To further develop hybrid learning, the new president aims to focus on the tried and tested peer review process in teaching.

There's so much to organise and think about when planning an event – especially in the coronavirus era. That includes obtaining the necessary permit to hold the event. Thanks to a new tool called Servix, getting an event approved is now easier than ever.

The culture development workstream of the rETHink project has gained momentum. Members of the ETH community from all university groups have held initial discussions about the values that our university should adhere to, paving the way for a wide-ranging discussion across the institution.

Most ETH Zurich canteens and restaurants will be offering meals in reCIRCLE reusable containers as of 14 September, just in time for the start of the autumn semester.

In the townhall on September 3, the two members of the Executive Board, Ueli Weidmann and Sarah Springman, answered questions from ETH members about the recently enacted regulations.

During the lockdown Antoinette van der Merwe was stuck in South Africa. While she was there, she started a new research project to find out how poor families are coping with the current corona crisis.

Under ETH Zürich’s safety protocol for the Autumn Semester 2020, everyone is required to wear a facemask indoors. Dr Hermann Lehner, head of Academic Services, provides some general background and explains why this practical measure is essential.

No event at ETH must last longer than 1 ¾ hours and drinks parties can only be held in catering facilities or outdoors.

As the coronavirus pandemic exploded in March 2020, students at ETH Zurich founded two online platforms that assigned volunteers to healthcare institutions in need: Students4Hospitals and Care Now. After six months of living with the virus, where are these platforms now?

From Monday, 24 August, it's "Mask on!" for everyone who travels in ETH buildings. If required, the posters for the campaign can be printed out.

Monday, 31 August sees the start of the next stage of the ETH Master Plan for restart, which mainly concerns the Autumn Semester 2020 and will last up to the end of the year. To keep the risk of coronavirus spreading as low as possible, everyone will be required to wear a facemask as soon as they enter any ETH building. This measure already applies from 24 August.

Emergency mode at ETH has led to many changes: from teleworking and virtual lectures to online events, things that were mostly unpopular a few months ago now seem to be the way of the future. Rui Brandao, Director of IT Services, tells us about his experience under emergency operations, how he's preparing for what comes next, and which aspects of the lockdown are here to stay.

With every passing week, new coronavirus infections are reaching record highs around the world. However, ETH's master plan is allowing for more restrictions to be relaxed in the next stage of reopening. Starting in early August, ETH employees will once again have access to all buildings at the university.

To bolster the coronavirus master plan already in place, the ETH Zurich Executive Board has approved a plan B containing additional measures in case a second wave of the virus strikes.

Organising session examinations during the coronavirus pandemic is an extraordinary logistical challenge. In August, more than 12,000 students will take these exams. After weeks of intense planning, the Rectorate has published its health and safety concept for exam season.

The coronavirus pandemic has inevitably disrupted the ETH organisational development process "rETHink" as well. ETH President Joël Mesot explains the current status of the project and what he considers to be the major challenges at present.

Jasper Clarysse is a doctoral student at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. Now that he’s back in the lab, things are different than they were before the lockdown. In the following video, he talks about his current situation at ETH Zürich.

Signs of life have slowly been returning to the ETH campus since the beginning of June. Since then, the Federal Council has decided to further ease lockdown restrictions. ETH Vice President Ueli Weidmann, head of the university’s COVID-19 task force, tells us what we should expect in the months ahead.

The SwissCovid app is officially available since Thursday 25 June. If you are already using the pilot version, this explains what you need to do if you want to continue using the app.

Alison Hunt works in the Earth Science Department at ETH Zürich. Transitioning from researching in the lab to working from home wasn't easy. However, it also came with new opportunities. In the following Video, Alison Hunt talks about her experience during the emergency operations.

The Department of Mathematics is responsible for mathematics tuition in all of the degree programmes that ETH offers. It has used the corona-related emergency operation to switch to remote teaching. Four students and lecturers tell of their experiences.

For 25 years, Marianna Berger held various administrative positions at ETH Zurich, most recently in the Department of Computer Science. Before her retirement at the end of June, she looks back on her varied career at the university.

Gunnar Jeschke is the head of the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zürich. During the emergency operations, the chemistry building had to be shut down and courses were transferred online. In the following video he talks about his experience during the emergency operations.

Esther Birk works at the Info and Service Center in the main building of ETH Zurich. Normally, people queue up at the counter early in the morning. During the emergency operations it's completely different: it's very quiet. You walk through the main building and hear your own steps. In the following video, Esther Birk talks about her experience.

The rules for remote working at home will be relaxed as of 8 June. In addition, the ETH Library will be open, student workplaces will be available once again on both campuses, and the ASVZ is opening its sports centres. Finally, catering facilities will also be stepped up to cope with increasing demand.

Researchers, laypeople and learning machines are working together to find ways of containing the coronavirus. This is rendered possible by the new Citizen Science Project Builder. This web-based tool for research projects allows volunteers to classify large amounts of image, audio and text data.

Despite the university going into emergency mode, staff at the Registrar’s Office have continued working in the Main Building. While the office now lacks face-to-face contact with its most important group of stakeholders, adapting to unforeseen events is nothing out of the ordinary for those who work there.

ETH members are gradually returning to buildings on the campus. From 8 June especially, there will be increased activity in office buildings and laboratories. So the obvious question is, how best to protect ourselves. We asked the advice of Dr Leonhard Sigel, head of the Occupational Medicine and Health Protection section of SSHE at our university.

For two months, ETH Zurich operated in emergency mode. During this time, the vast majority of buildings, lecture halls, laboratories and offices remained empty. Two photographers visited ETH in April in order to capture a largely deserted campus with only a few people still on site.

In certain exceptional cases, ETH employees can return to their workplaces from 11 May onwards. They may be able to do so on request, but require their supervisor's approval and must observe the rules on physical distancing and hygiene. Measures to ease restrictions have also been brought forward for doctoral examinations.

More freedom, more flexibility – as ETH continues to develop, its corporate design is keeping pace. We are reinvigorating our corporate design to give it a more incisive, modern and attractive look. Even more importantly, we are ensuring consistency and clarity across all channels and conveying a strong message for a strong university with a promising future.

In mid-March, vocational education and training at ETH Zurich also had to swiftly make the move to distance learning. We took a look at the IT and laboratory technician programmes to find out how trainers and apprentices are coping with the situation.

The three-month survey on the ETH community’s working situation during the corona crisis has reached its halfway point. We held a virtual chat with Professor Gudela Grute, initiator of the survey, to talk about what the results reveal so far.

The spread of coronavirus has led ETH Zurich to start operating with emergency measures in place. We asked ETH members about the challenges they are currently facing and how they’re overcoming them.

The winners of the photo competition for ETH members "Favourite places on the Hönggerberg campus" have been selected: Nicolas Ochsner won with a photo of the archive room of the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta).  

At the start of August, Alessio Figalli was awarded the Fields Medal. This distinction is often referred to as the Nobel Prize for mathematicians and is a cause for major celebration. ETH Zurich is to mark this special occasion with a honorary lecture on 22 October 2018. The lecture will also be broadcast via live streaming.

An info room in the former anatomy building at University Hospital Zurich provides information on developments in Zurich’s central university district. There is also a poster exhibition in ETH’s main building that discusses what will happen to the urban space between the buildings.

Seit vier Jahren schreiben Expertinnen und -Experten der ETH Zürich im Zukunftsblog zum Thema Nachhaltigkeit. Nun öffnet sich die Meinungsplattform für weitere Schwerpunktthemen der Hochschule.

ETH Zurich won this year's "European Excellence Awards in PR & Communications" with two projects: The Cybathlon won first prize in the category event and experiental marketing. Furthermore, the ETH Zurich short film won an award in the category Corporate Film and Video.

An increasing number of visitors is accessing ETH Zurich websites on mobile devices. In order to offer all visitors an optimal user experience, the switch to a responsive web design means that the content now adjusts flexibly to the respective screen size of the user.

The new short film about ETH communicates the key facts about the university, all in the space of a Polybahn trip. But this isn’t your everyday communications material – it deliberately combines fast-paced self-confidence with a tongue-in-cheek approach.

If you study, you learn. The latest issue of life, the ETH community magazine, explores what is important to students at ETH Zurich, as well as to Rector Sarah Springman, when it comes to studying.

The close proximity of the University Hospital Zurich, the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich in the Zurich city university district offers a great opportunity for research, teaching and medical care. Further information on the development of university medicine can be found on the Berthold website.

Scientifica 2015 will be held on the weekend of 5 and 6 September 2015 and will be dedicated to the theme of ‘light’. Discover new insights, see the highlights and be enlightened about the latest research at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich.

Members of ETH Zurich can find a wealth of helpful information on the new communication website, which features a wide range of new and updated content.

Swiss health insurance company SUVA has developed some key guidelines for working in the summer heat, to help you get through hot days at work.

The ETH Zurich campus is no ordinary campus – it's a laboratory investigating sustainability too, and you can read all about it in the latest edition of life, ETH's community magazine. Inside, you'll also find a glimpse into the challenges that Lino Guzzella faces as ETH president.

Staff and students at ETH Zurich will receive their new ETH card this summer, redesigned to match the ETH corporate design. The new card will function in exactly the same way as the old one. Staff who are currently using a photo that is no longer up to date will be invited to submit a new photo.