August 2024

In the early 1970s, Max Ziegler and Eric Lanter designed the so-called Building for Civil Engineering (HIL) on the Hönggerberg campus at ETH Zurich. For high-traffic areas such as the foyer, stairwells and corridors leading to the lecture halls, they chose a black rubber floorcovering with a studded structure.

A joint study by researchers from ETH Zurich and BOKU University has analysed the age distribution of Alpine rivers in Switzerland and Austria and shown that a large proportion of the annual runoff is significantly older than one month. This means that even in the event of floods, only a small proportion of the runoff consists of recent precipitation.  

Congratulations to doctoral candidate Lucas Gobatti, whose 1-minute video was selected by Nature Awards to be featured in the “Science in Shorts” series! The video communicates the results of a paper on blue-green infrastructure planning to a lay audience in an engaging and funny way. The main message is that if we want to cool down our cities with vegetation, we need to start planting as soon as possible, because it takes time to get the full cooling benefits of urban greenery.

D-BAUG spin-off Oxara enters into a strategic partnership with Kibag and Holcim Switzerland. The aim is to expand the production and distribution of Oxara's cement-free binder, "Oxacrete Oulesse". The innovative binder is designed to significantly reduce the environmental impact of building materials and to serve up to ten percent of the Swiss concrete market.

Professor emeritus Kay Axhausen has been named the recipient of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR). The award is presented every three years to prominent researchers who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to travel behavior research for at least 25 years and who have influenced the field through writing, teaching, service, and nurturing younger professionals.