June 2021

Kay Axhausen, Professor of Transport Planning, is featured in an interview series on "Big Data" produced by the Swiss National Science Foundation. His research project "Using data traces to improve transport systems" examined the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on mobility behavior. For this, the research team collected GPS data from 1,600 smartphones and evaluated more than one million person-trips. In the video, Prof. Axhausen talks about the results of the study and new methods for traffic planning.

The current issue of ETH’s Globe Magazine discusses two research projects of Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, Chair of Planning Landscape and Urban Systems. She aims at advancing knowledge on how the interactions of humans with their environments shape landscapes and vice versa.

ETH engineers and architects are planning a 23-metre-high tower made of 3D-printed columns for the village of Mulegns on the Julier Pass. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2022. Three professors from D-BAUG are involved: Robert Flatt is working on the concrete mix, the "ink" for the 3D printer, so to speak, Walter Kaufmann on the supporting structure and the connections of the printed concrete elements, and Andreas Wieser on the measurement and shape control.

A team of researchers led by Stefanie Hellweg, Professor of Ecological Systems Design, has for a first time compiled a comprehensive database of plastic monomers, additives and processing aids for use in the production of plastics on the world market, and systematically categorized them on the basis of usage patterns and hazard potential. The researchers found an unexpectedly high number of substances of potential concern, as they now report in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Kay Axhausen, Professor of Transport Planning at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He was honored during the university’s annual Commemoration Day.

For glaciers in the European Alps, it makes a large difference whether the earth's atmosphere will warm by one, one and a half or two degrees Celsius by the end of the century. This is the finding of a new study from the Professorship of Glaciology at D-BAUG, which simulated the effects of the three climate scenarios on the nearly 4,000 glaciers in the European Alps.

The International Transport Forum (ITF) has honored Daniel Jan Reck with the "Young Researcher of the Year Award" 2021. The scientist from the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering receives the award for his pioneering study on shared micromobility services using the city of Zurich as case study.

D-BAUG is top ranked in three disciplines in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2021 (Shanghai Ranking): It is ranked world leader in the field of "Water Resources Engineering". In the fields of "Civil Engineering" and "Environmental Science & Engineering", the department achieves a 2nd and a 3rd place.

This year, the Association of Scientific Staff AVETH and Equal! presented the first Diversity Award at ETH Zurich. Among the finalists are two female scientists from D-BAUG: Jane Walden and Darcy Molnar. Congratulations!