The latest news from Eawag

View from Varen Church of the Pfynwald floodplain with the Rhone (looking downstream), gravel banks and dry gravel terraces with a pine forest. (Photo: Jan Ryser/FOEN)
News
The impact of climate change on life in freshwater and ...
March 14, 2024

Communities in water and on land are responding similarly to climate change. One surprising exception may be the plankton.

Environmental engineer Lena Mutzner installs a passive sampler in an overflow basin to find out how many micropollutants are entering the water. (Photo: Christian Grund / 13Photo)
News
Cutting-edge research underground
March 11, 2024

In Fehraltorf in Zurich Oberland, Eawag and the ETH Zurich have set up a globally unique field laboratory for wastewater research.

Barriers such as the Müllerschwelle weir in the River Zulg in Steffisburg hinder or prevent fish migration. The Water Protection Act stipulates that such barriers must be rehabilitated and made passable for fish. In September 2023, the commune of Steffisburg began rehabilitation work on the Müllerschwelle weir to improve the connectivity along the River Zulg.  (Photo: Commune of Steffisburg, Mark van Egmond).
News
Improving fish migration with new concepts
March 7, 2024

Which barriers need to be removed for the greatest benefit of migratory fish? Where do the measures make the most sense and how do the costs relate to the benefits?

The mobile mass spectrometer MS2field – deployed here at a wastewater treatment plant – permits automated measurement of contaminants at extremely low concentrations with high temporal resolution. (Photo: Eawag)
News
More targeted treatment of industrial wastewater thanks ...
March 5, 2024

The development of Swiss wastewater treatment is ongoing. Eawag studies now show that there is also potential for improvement in the case of emissions from chemical and pharmaceutical plants – both at wastewater treatment plants and within industrial facilities.

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 staff members Brian Sinnet, Michael Plüss and Pascal Rünzi preparing a thermistor measurement chain that measures temperature, pressure and turbidity in glacial lakes. (Photo: Tobias Ryser)
LinkedIn
The Eawag Postdoctoral Fellowship
February 13, 2024

The Eawag postdoctoral fellowship position aims at offering outstanding young scientists with exciting research ideas the possibility for a two year research position at Eawag. The application deadline is April 11, 2024.

On a boat and a platform in Lake Rotsee, the Eawag research group carried out extensive measurements on the transport of gases in lake water (Photo: Tomy Doda, Eawag).
News
How gases travel laterally through a lake
January 25, 2024

At night or during cold winter days, lake water cools faster near the shore than in the middle of the lake. This creates a current that connects the shallow shore region with the deeper part of the lake. An international team led by Eawag researchers were able to show for the first time that this horizontal circulation transports gases such as oxygen and methane.

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.

David Janssen collects water samples from rivers in southern Greenland to analyse their heavy metal and nutrient content (Photo: Julian Charrière).
News
Heavy metals in the rivers of Greenland
December 12, 2023

Field studies by Eawag researcher David Janssen in southern Greenland show that the heavy metals in the rivers are largely of natural origin, and that the influence of mining and agriculture is negligible, at least during the period observed.

Cover picture: Legionella thrive particularly well in biofilms inside shower hoses. Eawag has analysed the other microorganisms with which they coexist there. The picture shows a biofilm removed from a shower hose (Photo: Eawag: Frederik Hammes)
News
One Legionella rarely comes alone
December 8, 2023

Legionella always interact with other organisms. Eawag researchers have characterised microbial communities and analysed their relationship to Legionella.

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.