ISTP News

Congratulations to the 2023 STP graduates! We look forward to seeing the journeys and achievements your future holds.

This past weekend, ETH Zurich hosted the IDEA League Challenge Programme. The event, marking the programme's midway point, brought together 40 highly skilled Bachelor's and Master's students. These students engaged in an intensive exploration of global water management issues, focusing on the identification and resolution of key conflicts.

The ISTP, in collaboration with The Energy Science Center (ESC), is thrilled to announce the return of "Energy Now!" – an initiative focused on addressing the most pressing challenges in building a sustainable Swiss energy system. The event's kick-off, "Energy Now! 2.0," is scheduled for October 2nd, 2023, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Dozentenfoyer (HG K 30.5) at ETH Zurich. Make sure to secure your spot now!

Join us for the upcoming seminar on the transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs) and its effects on public revenues and road financing. The series is a collaboration between the ISTP and the Center for Sustainable Future Mobility (CSFM). This event will feature talks from various experts that explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the rise of EVs and the evolving landscape of road funding.

«Between Walls and Fences» – the dissertation project of ISTP researcher David Kostenwein is part of the Vienna Biennale for Change 2021: CLIMATE CARE. Reimagining Shared Planetary Futures. The exhibition is ongoing until October 3, 2021.

In our upcoming colloquium talk, Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman, from the Center for Comparative and International Studies, investigates the influence of war on European states' territorial expansion. The starting point of his research is Charles Tilly's classical claim that "war made states." Prof. Cederman elaborates on state expansion's logic after testing the "bellicist" thesis by aligning historical data on European state borders with conflict data.

In collaboration with SECO, the virtual  "Urban Development Round Table," which took place on Tuesday, November 10, brought together some of the world's major players and funders of urban development, including the World Bank, the Cities Alliance, the Cities Development Initiative for Asia, and IDB. Reaching out beyond academia, Prof. Hubert Klumpner and Michael Walczak had a chance to explore how to devise collaborative solutions to the most pressing urban challenges.

Our next colloquium talk of the semester will take place online on Tuesday, 6th October 2020, at 5pm. The invited guest speaker, Prof. David Kaufmann from the ETH Zurich Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development, will give a conceptual overview over different urban policies in support of irregular migrants and he will present empirical insights from a policy survey of the biggest 95 European cities and of two case studies (Geneva: Operation Papyrus and Zürich: Züri City Card).

Our first colloquium talk for the Autumn Semester 2020 will take place online on Tuesday, 29th September 2020, at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker, Prof. Marco Mazzotti from the ETH Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, will elaborate on several aspects related to the deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCU and CCS) systems, which play a central role in political debates, technological efforts and scientific developments around climate change.

Minerals constitute the essential raw materials to sustain the present-day civilization. We need coal for energy, iron ore for steel and various other minerals for many other essentials. Mining of such minerals however, has major effects on the natural and social environment. This panel gave insights into the minerals trade of Switzerland and its environmental impacts. It emphasized the need for transparency, commitment and implementation of performance standards within the sector.

The schedule for the ISTP Colloquium series for the Spring Semester 2020 is now available online.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Alayar Kangarlu, Director of the physics and engineering group at NYSPI MRI research center at Columbia University, for his visit to the ISTP and his interesting talk on ultra-​high field magnetic resonance imaging and their importance in medicinal research and diagnostics.

Facts & not fiction. Cattle are still responsible for primary forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon. Professor Rachael Garrett’s recent inaugural lecture on deforestation - causes and necessary policy changes to combat proximity to a tipping point (of no return) - was a real tour de force.

Dr David Garcia is a computational social scientist who focuses on explaining social phenomena through computational models of human behaviour. He is currently a group leader at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna and Medical University of Vienna, Austria. We would like to warmly thank Dr David Garcia for his visit to the ISTP and his interesting and insightful talk.

On the 4^th of December 2019, the Science, Technology and Policy Alumni faculty group (STP Alumni) held its second event of the year and the first occurrence of its Alumni Talk series. The event was split into two parts, a small general assembly followed by the keynote from Alumnus Philippe Stadler Benz about his work at the Smart City Lab Basel. (Re-​post from ETH Alumni News)

The Swiss Mobility Lab at ISTP hosts an interactive workshop to share its research results and exchange ideas with invited policy-​makers and planners. The event will be held in room E 23, ground floor in the Main ETH (HG) Building on Monday, 9 December 2019. Registration is required.

Dr. Iossifova presented a new research program on the infrastructure for fragmented(ing) cities. This Colloquium's focus was Shanghai – Borderland formation, urban sanitation transitions and related policy challenges in a rapidly evolving socio-​eco-technical system. Dr. Iossifova is senior lecturer in Urban Studies and director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Manchester.

Prof. Dr. Rachael Garrett is the newly appointed Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy with dual affiliations with the Dept. of Humanities, Social and Political Science (D-GESS) and the Dept. of Environmental Systems Science (D-USYS). At the last ISTP colloquium, she presented her research on the potential of forest-focused supply chain policies (FSPs) for meeting global conservation objectives.

We would like to warmly thank Andrés Sepúlveda, urban planner for the Department of Habitat of Bogotá and lecturer of urban development at the El Bosque University in Bogotá, for his visit at ISTP and his talk about the use of street art as an urban planning tool in the case of informal settlements in Bogotá.

We would like to warmly thank Dr. Sebastian Ziaja, researcher in the programme "Transformation of Political (Dis-​) Order" at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwick​lungshilfe (DIE), for his visit to the ISTP and his talk about the effects of foreign aid on state capacities on the subnational level.

After its creation this summer, the Science, Technology and Policy (STP) Alumni Faculty Group officially kicked off with a welcome Apéro on the 13th of September 2019. Students from each cohort since the creation of the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy of ETH Zürich gathered and welcomed the institute's new students to their exciting journey ahead.

We would like to warmly thank Dr Iain Staffell, a multidisciplinary scientist working at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, for his visit to the ISTP and his fascinating and insightful talk on what drove Britain's massive power sector decarbonization between 2012-​​19 and the lessons for other countries with heavy fossil-​​fuel dependency.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Nathan Williams, Assistant Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, for his visit to the ISTP and his fascinating and insightful talk on decentralized energy systems in East Africa.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Sophie Oldfield for her visit to the ISTP and her interesting and insightful talk on collaborative urban theory.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Ambuj Sagar from the Indian Institute of Technology, Prof. Noelle Selin from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Prof. Joanna Chataway from the University College London for their visit to the ISTP and their interesting and insightful discussion with Prof. Sarah Springman and Prof. Tobias Schmidt about the importance of science and technology in public policy-making.

On Tuesday, 17th September 2019, 17:15 - 18:45, the 6^th SiP Talk was held in the Main Building of ETH Zürich (HG G 60). Guest speakers of world leading technical universities talked about key societal challenges whose solutions are likely to emerge at the intersection of science, technology, and public policy, discussing how to institutionalize policy-focused, interdisciplinary research, as well as teaching in this field.

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 24th September 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. "High Stakes, High Hopes" reflects on a decade-long research and teaching partnership, a collaborative process through which members of a civic organization in Cape Town and Prof. Sophie Oldfield have researched the city to collaboratively build urban theory. This approach brings together multiple voices shaping urban theory in shared spaces across Cape Town.

We are happy to announce additional speakers for our colloquium seminars. The schedule for the ISTP Colloquium series for the autumn semester 2019 is now online.

On Tuesday, 17th September 2019, 17:15 - 18:45, the 6^th SiP Talk will be held in the Main Building of ETH Zürich (HG G 60). Visit us to see speakers of world leading technical universities talking about key societal challenges whose solutions are likely to emerge at the intersection of science, technology, and public policy, discussing how to institutionalize policy-focused, interdisciplinary research, as well as teaching in this field.  

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 28th May 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. The ISTP speaker will talk about different ways that urban policies can be modified to embrace new interventions related to existing gated communities in Bogotà.

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 21st May 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will present his research results on the global politics of securing urban spaces and the evolution of security ensembles and state-society relations, based on fieldwork conducted in Zurich, Marrakech, Kathmandu and Montevideo.

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 14th May 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will present evidence on potential user support for MaaS subscription plans, providers' investment interests & governance models.

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 7th May 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will present their approach on evaluating policy interventions by using multi agent modeling to compare future freshwater scenarios aimed at improving Jordan’s freshwater situation.

“Do you know how to navigate the real-world systems in which technologies live?” Thirty students from five technical universities across Europe were confronted with this question at the start of a three-day meeting. This was the last of four meetings, the previous of which had been hosted by Politecnico di Milano, Chalmers University of Technology and RWTH Aachen University. The event at ETH Zurich was hosted by the Swiss Mobility Lab between Friday 12^th and Sunday 14^th April.

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 16th April 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will talk about the relevance of the energy system for a post-fossil mobility; insights of CO₂ emissions of different powertrain concepts & the interplay with the CO₂ regulation.

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 26th March 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will present their research results on the importance of citizen engagement to reduce pollution & the limits of a centralized approach to improving environmental governance in hierarchical organizations through short-lived enforcement crackdowns.

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 19th March 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will present their research results on the implications of changes for cities today and into the future, and the transportation and urban planning policies and practices that have contributed to the observed changes.

Our next colloquium talk takes place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 12th March 2019 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will present their research results on the climate implications of China's energy future on air pollution and health.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Reza Abhari for his talk at the ISTP and his interesting insights on how to maintain and expand Swiss national wealth.

Our final colloquium talk for this semester will take place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 11th December 2018 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will present their research results on how leg­isla­tive over­sight could reduce police killings reporting bias.

Our next colloquium talk will take place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 4th December 2018 at 17:15 - 18:30. The invited guest speaker will provide an overview of perspectives & initiatives bridging the role of technology, natural resources & infrastructure in maintaing Swiss wealth.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Noelle Eckley Selin for her visit to the ISTP and her interesting and insightful talk on climate change and air pollution.

Our next colloquium talk will take place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 20th November 2018 at 17:15 - 18:30. The ISTP invited guest speaker will talk about digital transformation with the people left in.

Our next colloquium talk will take place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Monday, 19th November 2018 at 14:30 - 16:00. The ISTP invited guest speaker will talk about factors and strategies that can foster and secure intrinsic motivation & engage people in pro-environmental behaviour.

Prof. Bauke Steenhuisen from the Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) Faculty at TU Delft, Netherlands, visited the ISTP to talk about the importance of storytelling.

Our next colloquium talk will take place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 13th November 2018 at 17:15 - 18:30. The ISTP invited guest speaker will provide an overview of how linking science with policy analysis could help us address climate change and air pollution more effectively. 

Prof. Andrea Castelletti from the Natural Resources Management Group at Politecnico di Milano visited the ISTP to give a talk on soft-path solutions for hard water problems in the Italian sub-alpine lake district.

A talk about the reason and way that storytelling can be a powerful instrument in response to the rapidly developing technologies, will take place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 6th November 2018 at 17:15 - 18:30.

Our invited guest speaker will provide an overview of soft-path solutions for hard water problems based on evidence from the Italian sub-alpine lake district. The talk will take place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 30th October 2018 at 17:15 - 18:30.

We are happy to announce additional speakers for our colloquium seminars. The updated schedule for the ISTP Colloquium series for the autumn semester 2018 is now online.

Prof. Hiroaki Matsuura Provost and Vice President (Academic) at Shoin University in Japan visited the ISTP on October 2nd to talk about the Economic and Demographic Effects of Emergency Risk Communication based on Evidence from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster.

A talk about economic and demographic effects of emergency risk communication based on evidence from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster will take place at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy on Tuesday, 2nd October 2018 at 17:15 - 18:30.

Prof. Frank Jotzo of ANU (Australian National University) Crawford School of Public Policy visited ISTP on September 20, 2018 to talk about the recent history of Australian climate change policy and the politics surrounding it. He also presented results from ongoing research on the energy transition away from coal to renewable energy sources.

The 5-day IDEA League summer school, organised by ISTP, was a success with the participation of 56 students from eleven leading universities, debating how they, the next generation of thinkers and leaders can use their disciplinary knowledge to reduce society’s environmental footprint.

The schedule for the ISTP Colloquium series for the autumn semester 2018 is now online.