ETH Board

In urban water management, the system used for treating wastewater has always been straightforward: wastewater is conveyed through the sewage system to centralised treatment plants, where it is treated. An interdisciplinary research project at Eawag led by Professors Bernhard Truffer and Max Maurer is now challenging this principle, advocating instead a hybrid system with decentralised treatment plants – for use worldwide, but also with potential for Switzerland.

Empa researchers have developed novel materials made of carbon that exploit quantum effects to exhibit previously unattainable electronic and magnetic properties. The Werner Siemens Foundation is providing the CarboQuant project with a grant of CHF 15 million. Graphene, nanotechnology and quantum science are now widely used at Empa.

Digital tools such as artificial intelligence make it possible for environmental researchers to access larger data pools and generate new scientific findings. WSL uses these tools in a wide variety of ways. For instance, they offer support with making more precise predictions about danger zones in snow and avalanche research.

Their names are Marianne Liebi Adrian Wanner. Two young researchers who make the nanostructure of macroscopic samples, such as bones or brain tissue, visible in three dimensions using high-resolution images. They achieve this using measurement data obtained with X-rays at the Swiss Light Source at PSI, which is then processed and used for imaging.

Professor of number theory Maryna Viazovska has solved a mathematical problem that has stumped researchers for centuries. Using a creative approach and the knowledge gained in her dissertation work, she demonstrates how spheres can be optimally and symmetrically packed into multidimensional space in a manner that fills all available space. This achievement brought her recognition with the Fields Medal, which is something like a “Nobel Prize for Mathematics”.