Departement Umweltsystemwissenschaften (D-USYS), ETH Zürich
banner
usyseth.bsky.social
Departement Umweltsystemwissenschaften (D-USYS), ETH Zürich
@usyseth.bsky.social
Understand. Engage. Inspire Change.
Research and teaching in Environmental and Agricultural Sciences at ETH Zurich. Managed by D-USYS Comms team. #usyslife #usysscience #usysawards #usysstudents
To our global community of thinkers and explorers: Thank you for a year of incredible breakthroughs and curiosity. May your holidays be filled with joy and your batteries be fully recharged for a bright 2026! 🚀✨

Stay curious! ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
Looking back at ETH Zurich’s 2025
Engineers, biomedical researchers, computer scientists, and many other members of the ETH Zurich community have made great strides in research and teaching. Here is a brief review of an eventful year.
ethz.ch
December 23, 2025 at 11:46 AM
🙌🌎Inga Mareike Nienkerken and her team have won one of the #EnergyNow! Challenges at @ethz.ch. Their idea? Using retired EV batteries as energy storage for solar off-grid systems. A collab between @empa-materials.bsky.social, alstom.bsky.social and partners in Ghana. www.linkedin.com/posts/usys-e...
#climatepolicy #climatepolicy #energytransition #circulareconomy #ethzurich #sustainability #renewableenergy #innovation #evbatteries #africaenergy | Department of Environmental Systems Science (D-USY...
🙌 Congrats to Inga Mareike Nienkerke, Senior Scientist in our #ClimatePolicy group led by Anthony Patt, who has won one of this year's Energy Now! awards with her team at ETH Zürich. The project addr...
www.linkedin.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Congrats to our 2025 #SFIAR Award winners! 🏆👏
While Claude Müller's doctoral theses provides new insights into #soil management practices, the Master's thesis of Lea Fabritius focuses on social impacts in #coffee value chains in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Well done!

usys.ethz.ch/en/news-even...
December 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Die Stärke von #Extremstürmen nimmt zu. 🌪️ Welchen Einfluss hat die #Erderwärmung darauf und was erwartet uns in der Zukunft? @ethz.ch Klimaforscherin Ulrike Lohmann nimmt im @tagesanzeiger.bsky.social dazu Stellung.

👉 www.tagesanzeiger.ch/klimawandel-...
Hurrikane auf dem Atlantik: Weniger, dafür viel heftiger: Eine Hurrikansaison als Blaupause für die Zukunft?
Die Zeit der Tropenstürme auf dem Atlantik geht in diesen Tagen zu Ende. Die Saison war geprägt von Extremen – und könnte wegweisend sein für die Zukunft.
www.tagesanzeiger.ch
December 17, 2025 at 9:53 AM
400 Abonnent:innen & über 5'700 Besucher:innen: Agrarpolitik bewegt! Herzlichen Dank an @robertfinger.bsky.social und das ganze Team vom Agrarpolitik-Blog für eure Beiträge das ganze Jahr über. 🙏🌾🌱 Auf ein weiteres spannendes Blog-Jahr 2026!

#Agrarpolitik #ScienceComm #Landwirtschaft #Rückblick2025
'Rückblick 2025: Ein vielfältiges Jahr im Agrarpolitik-Blog'

Neuer Beitrag mit @robehube.bsky.social. Vielen Dank an alle Beitragenden und Leserinnen und Leser!

agrarpolitik-blog.com/2025/12/17/r...
December 17, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Departement Umweltsystemwissenschaften (D-USYS), ETH Zürich
📢 Design the future of food! Apply for the World Food System Summer School at @ethz.ch (June 29 – July 10, 2026). 🌍 Dive into systems thinking, co-create solutions, and collaborate with experts.

Application deadline: Jan 25, 2026

🔗 bit.ly/4j0A1FO

@usyseth.bsky.social @robertfinger.bsky.social
December 15, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Benedikt Oeschger studies Agricultural Sciences, works at a cattle farm, has a seat in Winterthur’s city parliament, and is newly elected to the Board of the Swiss Study Foundation.

A Werner Siemens Foundation Excellence Scholarship is helping him stay on top of his game.

Read more: go.ethz.ch/3e
December 10, 2025 at 3:29 PM
🌱A global shift to fewer pesticides would yield long-term positive ecological & economic benefits, finds a study by Niklas Möhring from Uni Bonn, @eawag.bsky.social and @ethz.ch. However, the prevailing effects would vary depending on the region of the world.

www.eawag.ch/en/info/port...
Plant protection with fewer chemicals would have positive global effects
A global shift to agriculture with no or fewer pesticides would have long-term ecological and economic benefits, according to a new study.
www.eawag.ch
December 8, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Welcome, Katrin Di Bella Meusburger and @martinhartmann.bsky.social as newly appointed Adjunct Professors at our department! 🙋‍♀️
ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
Eleven professors appointed
At its meeting of 3 and 4 December 2025 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed eleven professors. In addition, seven adjunct professorships were awarded.
ethz.ch
December 8, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Congrats to Sandro Vattioni for winning China’s Pineapple Science Award for his article on geoengineering🍍🌟. The award ceremony was broadcast live on CCTV, China's largest state-owned television media platform.

usys.ethz.ch/en/news-even...

#PineappleAward #Geoengineering #ClimateScience
Diamonds, dust and television: Sandro Vattioni wins China's "IgNobel Prize"
Could diamond dust in the atmosphere be used to cool the climate? This question was addressed by Sandro Vattioni, a researcher in experimental atmospheric physics at the Institute of Atmospheric and C...
usys.ethz.ch
December 3, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Mayur Sapkal's @RepliClouds project is officially funded by the @ethz.ch Social Impact Pioneer Fellowship! 🔬🌍☁️
The Fellowship supports the commercialization and real-world application of the Horizontal Cloud Condensation Nuclei Counter (HCCNC).

🔗 RepliCloud Project details: u.ethz.ch/B8n5N
December 2, 2025 at 11:09 AM
20 years of our "Green Library" @ethz.ch ! 📚🎉 "The Green Library has become increasingly important as a place for students to learn and work," says Franz Johner, Head of the Green Library @ethlibrary.bsky.social.

Check out the full interview & voices of the community: usys.ethz.ch/en/news-even...
December 2, 2025 at 8:58 AM
🌲🔬 ETH Zurich is increasing funding for the Waldlabor Zürich. This will strengthen research on climate adaptation, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Stay tuned! A call for ETH projects planned for Spring 2026. @ethz.ch #ForestResearch

👉 usys.ethz.ch/en/news-even...
December 1, 2025 at 9:39 AM
The SwissNatColl portal is now live! 🎉

Switzerland’s natural history collections hold over 60 million specimens - a unique scientific heritage built over 300 years. With SwissNatColl, these data are now openly accessible.

🔗 Explore the portal: swissnatcoll.ch
🎥: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgHy...
Swiss natural history collections network (SwissCollNet)
YouTube video by Swiss Academy of Sciences SCNAT
www.youtube.com
November 27, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Congrats to @cyyu.bsky.social on winning the Golden Owl 🦉 from VSETH for his excellent teaching! One of Brunner's main areas of focus is leading the SPEED2ZERO project, which is centred on Switzerland's sustainable transformation.
usys.ethz.ch/en/news-even...
Golden Owl for Cyril Brunner
For his excellent teaching, Cyril Brunner has been awarded the Golden Owl by ETH Zurich’s students association VSETH.
usys.ethz.ch
November 24, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Lackdämpfe aus der Zugproduktion setzen VOC-Schadstoffe frei. Diese belasten Gesundheit und Umwelt. @morecloud.bsky.social, Professorin für #Aerosolchemie an der @ethz.ch, ordnet ein: www.srf.ch/news/schweiz...
Stadler Rail belastet seit Jahren die Umwelt – Kritik an Behörden
Stadler Rail stösst seit Jahren zu viele Schadstoffe aus. Die zuständigen Kantone reagierten laut Experten zu spät.
www.srf.ch
November 21, 2025 at 1:16 PM
‪👏🏅8 of our D-USYS researchers at @ethz.ch
have been named Highly Cited Researchers 2025 by
@clarivate.com. This puts them in the Top 1% of the world's most influential scientists. What a great honour - for them and us as ETH department!

usys.ethz.ch/en/news-even...
D-USYS researchers among world's most influential in 2025
Erich Fischer, Nicolas Gruber, Lukas Gudmundsson, Reto Knutti, Andreas Prein, Martin Scheringer, Sonia Seneviratne, and Johan Six have been named
usys.ethz.ch
November 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Braucht es Erbschaftssteuer für Finanzierung der Klimapolitik? Anthony Patt betont auf @srfnews.bsky.social: Die Tatsache, dass für #Klimaschutz mehr investiert werden muss, relativiert die Schwächen der Vorlage. Abgestimmt wird am 30.11.2025.

👉 www.srf.ch/audio/echo-d...
Braucht es Erbschaftssteuer für Finanzierung der Klimapolitik?
Weil Superreiche das Klima stark belasten, sollen sie mit einer Erbschaftssteuer den Klimaschutz finanzieren. So die Idee der sogenannten Initiative für eine Zukunft der Jungsozialisten. Parlament und...
www.srf.ch
November 17, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Carolina Bello secures one of the coveted SNSF Starting Grant 2025!

Her funded project: AniCaRes: Animating carbon restoration: The role of animals in C sequestration during forest restoration 🌳.

Only 41 projects funded across Switzerland—a brilliant achievement! 🏆

www.snf.ch/en/IgF8TOITJ...
Career funding: 41 projects approved
In its SNSF Starting Grants call, the SNSF is funding outstanding researchers with approx. 70 million Swiss francs and a bequest.
www.snf.ch
November 13, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Switzerland: How to boost e-mobility? 🇨🇭🚗
@Tony Patt @ethz.ch proposes the following to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs)

-"Right to Charge" for tenants.

- 2030 end date for new fossil fuel cars.

- Scrappage scheme for older cars.

Read more 👇
ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
Anthony Patt, how can we boost e-mobility in Switzerland?
Only a few cars on Swiss roads are purely electric, and the fleet is still growing slowly. New taxes on e-cars are likely to slow down the switch in future. Anthony Patt explains how the mobility tran...
ethz.ch
November 10, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Announcing the 2026 #LatsisSymposium, focusing on how historical data can inform our approach to past, present, and future epidemics.

🗓️ Feb 9-11, 2026

🔍 Key Sessions Include:

- Past Outbreaks Dynamics
- Phylogenetics & Ancient DNA
- Disease History
- Synthesis Panel

latsis-epidemics.ethz.ch
Homepage
Latsis Symposium 2026: The history of epidemics - are there lessons for the future?
latsis-epidemics.ethz.ch
November 10, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Departement Umweltsystemwissenschaften (D-USYS), ETH Zürich
MeteoSwiss, ETH Zurich, and C2SM present the new Swiss climate scenarios.

These show how the Swiss climate will change if the global average temperature rises by 3 degrees. ethz.ch/en/news-and-...

@meteoschweiz.ch, @usyseth.bsky.social #klimaszenarien #meteoschweiz #ETH #C2SM #NCCS
Climate change particularly pronounced in Switzerland
Switzerland will become drier and hotter, experience less snow and face heavier rainfall in the future. Those are the conclusions reached by climate researchers from its Federal Office of Meteorology ...
ethz.ch
November 4, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Old oats, new future!🌾🧬🌾A research consortium has deciphered the genetic make-up of over 30 oat varieties and compiled the genes into a database. The rediscovered Swiss oat variety “Hative des Alpes” could help breed more robust, climate-resilient crops. 👉 ethz.ch/en/news-and-... #AlpineOat
New research into forgotten Alpine oat variety
For decades, the oat variety ‘Hative des Alpes’  had been all but forgotten. Now, its genetic information is being incorporated into the first gene atlas for oats – and will one day contribute to the ...
ethz.ch
November 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Congrats to Dr. Anna Feller of our Plant Ecological Genetics group! She's won the Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize 2025 from the SNSF! 🧬🌱
www.snf.ch/en/ix78nqjSr...

youtu.be/iflkNAqdv5A?...
#MHVprize #PlantGenetics #Evolution #ScienceAward #ETHZ #Science #Biodiversity
Anna Feller ist die MHV-Preisträgerin 2025
YouTube video by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds
youtu.be
November 3, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Dr. Hans Dätwyler is the new CEO of the Swiss Plant Breeding Centre (SPBC). The board includes representatives from private and public breeding/research, such as ETH Zurich professor Bruno Studer.

#SPBC #PlantBreeding #ETHZ #SwissAgri #Sustainability

www.spbc-plantbreeding.ch/en/spbc
Swiss Plant Breeding Center - SPBC 
Das Swiss Plant Breeding Center (SPBC) ist das unabhängige Kompetenz- und Innovationszentrums für Pflanzenzüchtung in der Schweiz. Es hat zum Ziel, den gesamten Schweizer Pflanzenzüchtungssektor zu st...
www.spbc-plantbreeding.ch
November 3, 2025 at 12:22 PM