A team in Zurich for the education and research centre in Heilbronn
The project to establish an ETH site in Heilbronn is taking shape. A team of initially three people has been working on this project since 1 July 2024.
The central points of contact for all questions relating to the ETH Zurich Campus Heilbronn are located in the main building in D 59: three experienced ETH members – Agatha Keller, Romana Mayer and Silvio Bonaccio – are ensuring that the establishment of the new education and research centre in Germany is driven forward.
The team’s remit in Zurich
Over the next few months, the small team will be joined by a project manager in the Rectorate who will lead the development of courses for the Dieter Schwarz Foundation's Bildungscampus in Heilbronn. The Zurich team is coordinating and orchestrating the development of the new site and is available to answer any questions the ETH community may have about this major project. As a dedicated unit, the team reports directly to the President. Jürg Brunnschweiler, Chief of staff to the President, will head the group on an interim basis until a project manager is found.
ETH employee number 1 from Ticino to Heilbronn
The first managing director in Heilbronn has now also been appointed. Michele De Lorenzi, an experienced ETH employee, will take over this position on 1 January 2025. De Lorenzi is currently Deputy Director of the CSCS, ETH Zurich's supercomputing centre in Lugano. His tasks will include setting up the ETH Zurich branch in Heilbronn and representing the university's interests vis-à-vis the authorities in the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg and at local level.
The next steps on the way to Germany
Preparations for the legal and organisational form of the new site, its governance and financing mechanisms are currently in full swing. The intention is to establish a not-for-profit limited liability company (gGmbH) under German law as of 1 January 2025. An initial academic project is also planned: internships in the field of data science are being advertised for October 2024 to February 2025 in collaboration with Schwarz IT, the IT arm of the Dieter Schwarz group. The first further education programmes in Heilbronn are due to start next year, followed by the appointment of professors.
ETH Zurich has already made its first marks in Heilbronn: in mid-June, the "digital Einstein" was a guest at the local Night of Science. Construction of the high-rise building in which the ETH teaching and research teams will work in future is well advanced. A number of floors in the hip tower have been reserved for ETH Zurich.
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