News from the Executive Board 2022 / 3

Ulrike Lohmann elected new Vice Rector for Doctoral Studies

Ulrike Lohmann, Full Professor at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science (D-USYS), has been appointed as the new Vice Rector for Doctoral Studies. She will take over this office on 1 February 2023 from Prof. Manfred Sigrist, who will step down as Vice Rector for Doctoral Studies on 31 January 2023.

Sigrist assumed the office on 1 February 2021 for a two-year term, replacing Antonio Togni (see Internal news, 16 October 2020).

Lohmann has been a Full Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich since 2004. In addition to her work in D-USYS, she is also the President of the Lecturers’ Conference and a member of the core team of rETHink Workstream 6 – Culture development.

As Vice Rector for Doctoral Studies, Lohmann will be responsible for central procedures such as admission to doctoral studies and the issuing of doctoral degrees. Together with the departments, who bear responsibility for their content, she will ensure the quality of doctoral programmes. She will also chair the arbitration committee for doctoral studies.

Elections to the Commission for Good Scientific Practice

Since 1 April 2018, the interdepartmental Commission for Good Scientific Practice (GSP Commission) has supported the ETH Executive Board in questions of integrity in research and teaching, as well as good scientific practice. It recently developed the new Integrity Guidelines for submission to the Executive Board (see Intern aktuell, 25 January 2022).

The Executive Board elects the members of the GSP Commission for a term of four years, following departmental recommendations and at the request of the Vice President for Research. The Executive Board has accordingly elected the following professors to the GSP Commission for the term of office 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2026:

• Prof. Elli Mosayebi (D-ARCH)
• Prof. Dylan Possamaï (D-MATH)
• Prof. Antoine Bommier (D-MTEC)

They will replace retiring commission members Prof. Philip Ursprung (D-ARCH), Prof. Peter Bühlmann (D-MATH) and Prof. Stefano Brusoni (D-MTEC), whom we thank for their service.

In addition, the Executive Board has elected the following members to the GSP Commission for a second term, which also runs to the end of March 2026:

• Prof. Kobi Benenson (D-BSSE)
• Prof. Wendelin Stark (D-CHAB)
• Prof. Tim Eglinton (D-ERDW)
• Prof. Michael Hampe (D-GESS)
• Prof. Patrick Jenny (D-MAVT)
• Prof. Isabelle Mansuy (D-HEST)
• Prof. Nicolas Gruber (D-USYS).

Financial support for the Chemistry Olympiad

The external pageInternational Chemistry Olympiadcall_made (IChO) is an international competition for talented young students in secondary and vocational schools. The event will take place from 16 to 25 July 2023 at ETH Zurich – the first time it is being held in Switzerland. The IChO 2023 has a promising format that will promote social dialogue and make ETH internationally visible as an attractive place of teaching and research in the field of chemistry.

After the initial start-up funding, fundraising is proving to be more demanding than anticipated. For this reason, the Executive Board and D-CHAB have decided to increase their investment by almost CHF 1 million.

New programme regulations for the Bachelor’s programme in mechanical engineering

The Bachelor’s programme in mechanical engineering at D-MAVT is the largest degree programme at ETH Zurich, with approximately 500 new students annually. In order to further develop and improve various elements of this programme, the curriculum has now been revised. In addition to the introduction of split first-year examinations, there is now a stronger focus on computational competencies.

The adoption of new programme regulations in 2022 requires the termination of the previous programme regulations adopted in 2010, as the students arriving for Autumn Semester 2022 will study according to the new regulations.

Please note that the programme regulations are only available in German.

Changes to regulations for the Bachelor’s programme in human medicine

The Bachelor’s programme in human medicine started up in Autumn Semester 2017, as a pilot project in D-HEST.  On 1 January 2021, the programme was made permanent. Because of this, the Executive Board has now issued new programme regulations. The major changes to the previous regulations adopted in 2018 are:

• The new programme regulations are valid indefinitely – in contrast to the previous regulations, which were limited to admissions up to and including Autumn Semester 2021.
• The “Pathobiochemistry” subject is now a part of the first-year examination block 2.
• Within the first-year examination blocks, certain courses are weighted differently.
• Second- and third-year courses are now listed separately in the transcript.

The adoption of new programme regulations in 2022 requires the termination of the previous programme regulations adopted in 2018, as the students arriving for Autumn Semester 2022 will study according to the new regulations.

Please note that the programme regulations are only available in German.