2021

The Swiss National Science Foundation's SNSF professorships are intended for highly qualified young researchers who aspire to a permanent professorship. Over  six years, quantum researcher Oded Zilberberg conducted his research project as an assistant professor at the Department of Physics at ETH Zurich under this SNSF funding scheme.

An international team of researchers with participation of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich has succeeded in capturing an image of a very special planet. No known planet orbits a hotter or more massive star system. Some astronomers even considered it impossible for planets to exist in such an environment.

In 2021, ESA selected three themes from a hundred proposals for its largest science missions, “Voyage 2050”. The National Centre of Competence in Research, or NCCR, “PlanetS” with its partner institutions ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich proposed two of the three chosen topics. The NCCR “PlanetS” is led by the two home institutions, the University of Bern and the University of Geneva.

The first demonstration of direct femtosecond-pulse emission from a quantum cascade laser in the mid-infrared region paves the path towards novel applications of ultrashort laser pulses.

The “Nationale Zukunftstag” on 11 November is an important event at ETH Zurich. It offers many children the opportunity to get to know ETH Zurich from the inside. 17 different programmes were offered by various ETH units, some of which would have probably been of interest to adults, too.