October
Old mobile phones: A potential gold mine
Can old mobile phones serve as a potential gold mine? ISTP doctoral candidate from the Swiss Minerals Observatory Antoinette van der Merwe and ETH Zurich Prof. Isabel Günther dug deeper into Swiss drawers to find approximately 6.5 million unused phones. In a policy brief, they emphasize that return rates of old devices for recycling remain significantly low despite most people saying they know where to recycle their old phones.
ETH Zurich to suspend most classroom teaching
(Re-post from ETH News) With the number of coronavirus cases growing rapidly, ETH Zurich sees no choice but to extensively restrict classroom teaching starting on 2 November. The ETH community will receive detailed information over the course of this week.
ISTP Colloquium: Pathways for advancing pesticide policies
In our upcoming colloquium talk, ETH Prof. Robert Finger from the Agricultural Economics and Policy Group names key challenges for the reduction of environmental and health risks from agricultural pesticide use and presents a framework developed in collaboration with Dr. Niklas Möhring for improving current policies. He also provides insights into economics and policies on pesticide risk reduction in Swiss agriculture using selected case studies.
Interdisciplinary cooperation
(Re-post from ETH News) Ten years ago, ETH took the bold step of establishing a presence abroad in the form of its very own research centre. This year, the Singapore-ETH Centre launched its third research programme – and new insights are already making their way back to Switzerland.
ISTP4Public New Video: The Impact of Vertical Densification on Public Lighting in Informal Settlements
An insightful study with the aim of evaluating the application of Virtual Environments in lighting planning and policy-making by ISTP researchers from the Urban Research Incubator David Kretzer & Michael Walczak was recently published in the Athens Journal of Architecture. Watch the latest video of our "ISTP4Public" series and gain deep insights into their research and main findings.
Coronavirus pandemic: ETH Zurich tightens rules
(Re-post from ETH Zurich Services & resources Internal news) In view of the rapid increase in the rate of COVID-19 infections, the Executive Board has responded to advice from the ETH COVID task force by tightening the measures for combating the spread of the virus at ETH Zurich. The facemask mandate will be extended further, drinks receptions and other social events are generally no longer allowed and working from home will once again become the preferred option.