SNSF Starting Grants for two D-BAUG researchers
Eight researchers from ETH Zurich successfully applied for Starting Grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation, among them also Benedikt Soja and Franco Zunino from Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering.
The most recent call for applications for SNSF Starting Grants went rather well for ETH Zurich: four women and four men from six different departments will each be receiving funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) worth around CHF 1.7 million.
In total, 58 researchers applied for the funding via ETH, amounting to a success rate of 13.8 percent. This time around, women enjoyed particular success, with 28.6 percent of applications submitted being approved. The average success rate for all Swiss universities is 12.2 percent.
D-BAUG projects in brief:
Benedikt Soja is a professor of space geodesy, the use of satellites to measure the Earth and its atmosphere. He will use his Starting Grant to develop a new concept for measuring water vapour in the atmosphere using signals from the GPS satellite system. He will develop low-cost GPS receivers that are sensitive enough that they react to water vapour in the atmosphere. To demonstrate the feasibility, Soja will set up a system of 200 stations around Zurich with the help of citizen science. It will measure water vapour locally, enabling better rainfall forecasts and an early warning system for extreme weather events. Learn more
Franco Zunino is currently a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) fellow. He has been awarded a Starting Grant for a project to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete, looking at the first chemical reactions taking place during the first 24 hours. While short within the typical lifespan of cementitious materials, this period greatly defines the properties of concrete, shaping the fate of long-term performance from the start. Zunino will not be conducting this project at ETH Zurich but will continue his research at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has been appointed as a professor.
Read the full ETH News article from 21 November 2024