The latest news from Eawag

on the left: Joaquín Jiménez-Martínez (Photo: Andres Valencia); right: João P. Leitão (Photo: zvg)
Institutional
Joaquín Jiménez-Martínez and João P. Leitão become ...
March 25, 2024

As of April 1, 2024, Eawag will have two new adjunct professors among its researchers: Joaquín Jiménez-Martínez and João P. Leitão have been appointed by the ETH Board at the request of ETH Zurich, both in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering.

Frozen wastewater samples for analysis for SARS-CoV-2 virus material. (Photo: Keystone, Gaetan Bally)
Consultations
Eawag welcomes revision of the Epidemics Act
March 22, 2024

Eawag welcomes the planned revision of the Epidemics Act as part of the public consultation process. The amendments will improve cooperation between all stakeholders in order to protect the population even better against transmissible diseases and antibiotic resistance. The opinion of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology particularly emphasises the holistic approach, which includes human, animal and environmental health.

Leading global decision makers from politics and practice came together to discuss urgent questions about the environment and air quality at the Climate and Clean Air Conference, which took place in Nairobi from 21 to 23 February 2024 within the framework of the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly. (Photo: CCAC)
Institutional
Eawag joins the UNEP’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition
February 29, 2024

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is including Eawag as a non-state partner of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).

The President of the Dübendorf Municipal Council, Patrick Schärli, unveils the plaque with which the SCNAT Academies of Sciences honour Eawag as a Chemical Landmark, a place where the history of chemistry has been and continues to be written. Eawag Director Martin Ackermann on the right, SCNAT President Philippe Moreillon on the left. (Photo: Andres Jordi, SCNAT)
Institutional
Eawag has been singled out for the Chemical Landmark ...
February 27, 2024

The Swiss Academy of Sciences has honoured the water research institute in Dübendorf as a significant historic site for chemistry. Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, revolutionised chemistry under its director, Werner Stumm, through its launching of environmental chemistry. It has contributed significantly to a better understanding of complex processes in nature and to clean bodies of water in Switzerland.

Urs von Gunten has always combined research with practice. (© Alain Herzog / 2024 EPFL)
Interview
Urs von Gunten, the unsung hero of water treatment
February 16, 2024

For a scientist who’s won numerous international honors for his research, Urs von Gunten, a professor at EPFL and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), is disarmingly modest. Urs von Gunten will retire in one year: Time to look back at his career.

Eawag Director Martin Ackermann and Empa Director Tanja Zimmermann (Photo: Marion Nitsch, Empa)
Interview
The CO2-binding society as a goal
January 22, 2024

Empa Director Tanja Zimmermann and Eawag Director Martin Ackermann want to provide answers to the current climate crisis with new initiatives and ambitious goals.

Eawag researchers Christa McArdell and Marc Böhler explain how ozone removes micropollutants in wastewater. (Photo: Eawag, Claudia Carle)
News
Eawag presents one of its success stories on the ...
January 18, 2024

To coincide with the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the ETH Domain invited 50 dignitaries from the political, research and business spheres, to Davos and presented highlights from its current research. Eawag demonstrated how its work has successfully paved the way for advanced wastewater treatment.

Ozone is blown into the treated wastewater through these diffusers (WWTP Neugut, Dübendorf; photo: Max Schachtler) .
Institutional
Swiss approach to modern wastewater treatment is ...
December 1, 2023

A team of seven current and former Eawag researchers will receive the Swiss Chemical Society’s Sandmeyer Prize in 2024 for the development of advanced wastewater treatment for the degradation of micropollutants using ozone. And the most amazing thing is: Just about 15 years have passed between basic research and large-scale technical implementation. This incredible timetable was only possible thanks to the wealth of knowledge already available at Eawag and the fact that interdisciplinary collaboration is a matter of course at the Swiss aquatic research institute.