Mar 10, 2023 | Two Empa researchers appointed professors at ETH Zurich
The ETH Board has awarded the title of Professor to two Empa researchers: Corsin Battaglia, Head of the Materials for Energy Conversion Laboratory, and Dorina Opris, who leads the Functional Polymeric Materials Group.
Dec 22, 2022 | Award at the «Swiss Innovation Challenge»
The Empa spin-off Perovskia Solar has been awarded second place at the Swiss Innovation Challenge, leaving more than 100 competitors behind. The prizes were presented by Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin. Perovskia Solar...
Dec 20, 2022 | Reason for multi-billion Euro construction damage elucidated
After extensive analyses, Empa researchers found the cause of the concrete scandal in County Donegal, Ireland, where structural damage has been causing red faces and protests for years: Concrete walls of thousands of...
Dec 15, 2022 | A tabletop accelerator facility
EuPRAXIA is the first European project that develops a compact particle accelerator research infrastructure based on novel plasma acceleration concepts and laser technology. An Empa Team led by Davide Bleiner and...
Dec 14, 2022 | Collecting solar energy from both sides
Bifacial thin film solar cells based on copper indium gallium diselenide or CIGS can collect solar energy from both their front and their rear side – and thus potentially yield more solar electricity than their...
Dec 13, 2022 | New study: Energy Future 2050
With a new project, Energy Future 2050, the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies VSE together with Empa shows based on various scenarios what Switzerland's energy supply could look like by 2050. Take-home message:...
Dec 9, 2022 | ETH Board appoints Lorenz Herrmann
The ETH Board appointed Lorenz Herrmann as a new member of the Empa's Directorate at its meeting on 7-8 December 2022.
Dec 8, 2022 | Surfaces with antiviral properties
Using a new analytical method, Empa researchers have tracked viruses as they pass through face masks and compared their failure on the filter layers of different types of masks. The new method should now accelerate the...
Dec 5, 2022 | Innosuisse Certificate for Empa spin-off
Founded in February 2018 as an Empa spin-off, the start-up company MIRO Analytical received one of the coveted Innosuisse Certificates in October. The certificate reflects the remarkable progress the young company made...
Dec 1, 2022 | Distinguished Senior Researcher: Dominik Brunner
Internationally recognized atmospheric scientist and Distinguished Senior Researcher at Empa: Dominik Brunner is a scientist who has explored his subject area from many angles – with a weatherproof motivation and...
Dec 1, 2022 | Professorship for Empa researcher
Empa researcher Thijs Defraeye has been appointed Special Professor Data and Simulations for Self-care Postharvest Fresh-food Supply Chains at the University of Wageningen's group of Food, Quality and Design. Defraeye...
Nov 29, 2022 | Medical technology
Hearing-impaired people whose auditory nerve is still intact can often be helped with a cochlear implant. But inserting the implant into the inner ear is not without risks, as facial nerves can be damaged in the process....
Nov 24, 2022 | Open Research Data Management (ORD)
A consortium with researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Empa and ETH Zurich has won funding of almost CHF1.3 million for a three-year project on open and reproducible materials science research. The project...
Nov 23, 2022 | Wearables for healthcare
With sensors that measure health parameters and can be worn on the body, we do let technology get very close to us. A collaboration between Empa and designer Laura Deschl, sponsored by the Textile and Design Alliance...
Nov 22, 2022 | Plastic pollution: Scientists raise red flag
Next week the UN intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) on plastic pollution will meet in Uruguay to develop an international legally binding instrument against plastic pollution. There is concern among scientists...
Nov 17, 2022 | Empa's Zukunftsfonds – Funding ambitious research
Empa researchers are developing a medical chip in collaboration with the ETH Zurich and the Cantonal Hospital of St.Gallen that will allow statements to be made about the effect of substances on babies in the womb. The...
Nov 16, 2022 | New compendium: Everything you need to know about battery storage systems
Although they are indispensable nowadays, there is still a lack of knowledge and skepticism about batteries. The Forum Energy Storage Switzerland therefore compiled a compendium on research, development, potential and...
Nov 15, 2022 | Two researchers honored as "influencers"
Every year, scientists whose publications have been most frequently cited are selected. They are considered to be particularly influential in their field. This year, two Empa scientists are featured on the coveted list.
Nov 11, 2022 | Swiss architecture award for NEST unit
The NEST unit HiLo is one of the eleven winning projects of this year's Swiss architecture award, Arc Award. With its innovative, resource-saving approaches, the project stood out from the field of 359 submitted projects...
Nov 10, 2022 | Award for Empa innovation
Every year, TIME publishes a list of the most important inventions of the year. This year, Gustav Nyström and his team from Empa's Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory made it onto the list with their biodegradable...
Nov 8, 2022 | Virtual reality
Together with EPFL and ETH Zurich colleagues, an Empa team is developing next-generation VR gloves that will make virtual worlds tangible. The glove is to be tailored to each user and capable of being produced largely...
Nov 2, 2022 | Green technology
Farmers once ensured rich harvests of hay by systematically irrigating meadows. In the canton of Zurich, environmentalists are bringing these methods back to life to create a valuable idyll with high biodiversity – using...
Oct 26, 2022 | Portrait Wim Malfait
Belgian-born Wim Malfait is a trained geologist who once searched for gold on behalf of a mining company. Today, he heads the Building Energy Materials and Components laboratory, which develops, among other things,...
Oct 25, 2022 | Integration on a chip
Extreme miniaturization of infrared (IR) detectors is critical for their integration into next-generation consumer electronics, wearables and ultra-small satellites. Thus far, however, IR detectors have relied on bulky...
Oct 20, 2022 | Sustainability
Nearly half of all fruit and vegetables produced globally are wasted each year, according to the United Nations. This has implications for food insecurity, climate change, and for economic security and mobility of the...
Oct 19, 2022 | Climate change
Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees requires the energy system to be restructured as quickly as possible. But the speed of this transformation is physically limited. An Empa study now calculates the influence of...
Oct 19, 2022 | Rubber production
The substitution of petrochemical materials with those obtained from renewable raw materials is an important step towards increasing sustainability. In just two years of intensive and open collaboration between Empa and...
Oct 17, 2022 | Using digitalization to prevent trees from dying
Planting trees is an effective means of combating heat islands in cities. However, it is particularly difficult for young trees to survive in an urban environment. The OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied...
Oct 14, 2022 | OLMA St. Gallen
At this year's OLMA, Federal President Ignazio Cassis visited the joint stand of Empa and Switzerland Innovation Park Ost, where two current research projects are on display.
Oct 12, 2022 | Successful financing round for Empa spin-off Nahtlos
Nahtlos, an Empa spin-off, has received 1 million Swiss francs in a first round of financing from a network of business angels from Switzerland and Liechtenstein and from the Startfeld Foundation. With this funding,...
Oct 10, 2022 | Gaining power
One year after announcing an efficiency record, Empa scientists have achieved a new mark of 22.2% for flexible CIGS solar cell on polymer film. Solar cells of this type are especially suited for applications on...
Oct 5, 2022 | Intelligent assistance system to reduce airplanes' environmental footprint
The approach and landing of passenger jets is often a burden for people and the environment. The DYNCAT project, in which Empa researchers are working with partners in Switzerland, Germany and France, is aiming at...
Oct 5, 2022 | SME prize for Kyburz Switzerland AG – also thanks to Empa know-how
Kyburz Switzerland AG is the winner of the "Prix SVC Wirtschaftsraum Zürich 2022" awarded by the Swiss Venture Club. The company, based in Freienstein in the canton of Zurich, produces electric vehicles and is developing...
Oct 4, 2022 | Empa Young Scientist Fellowship
Lukas Gerken has been awarded an Empa Young Scientist Fellowship for his research project to make radiation therapy for cancer patients more effective and at the same time gentler. The young Empa researcher is being...
Sep 29, 2022 | Empa Innovation Award 2022 for spin-off viboo
This week, the Empa Innovation Award was presented for the eleventh time. The award honors outstanding projects that bridge the gap between lab and practical applications. This year's winner is viboo. The Empa spin-off...
Sep 27, 2022 | High-tech for quieter tracks
To reduce rail noise for residents, noise barriers or quieter wheel systems and brakes are not the only options. An inconspicuous component under the railway tracks is a beacon of hope for quieter rail traffic for a team...
Sep 21, 2022 | 3D printing of the future – following nature's example
An international research team led by drone expert Mirko Kovac of Empa and Imperial College London has taken bees as a model to develop a swarm of cooperative, 3D-printing drones. Under human control, these flying robots...
Sep 19, 2022 | Portrait Hannes Pichler
For the research institutes Empa and Eawag, Hannes Pichler developed the strategy for an innovative and sustainable campus. In planning "co-operate", the head of Empa's real estate management was also able to draw on...
Sep 15, 2022 | Electronics
In the FOXIP project, researchers form Empa, EPFL and the Paul Scherrer Institute attempted to print thin-film transistors with metal oxides onto heat-sensitive materials such as paper or PET. The goal was ultimately not...
Sep 14, 2022 | Dübendorf Research Campus
This is how Augmented Reality (AR) works: The co-operate AR app allows virtual insights into co-operate, the new research campus of Empa and Eawag in Dübendorf. Visitors can already see what the campus will look like one...
Sep 14, 2022 | Falling walls 2022
Which are the next walls to fall in science and society? Guided by this question, the brightest minds in the international scientific community submitted their groundbreaking projects for the prestigious "Falling Walls...
Sep 8, 2022 | Empa Sommercamp 2022
Freude, Forschung und Freundschaften standen beim diesjährigen Sommercamp der Empa auf dem Programm. Während die Eltern in den Büros und Labors arbeiteten, versuchten sich 16 Kinder im Primarschulalter während einer...
Sep 6, 2022 | Successful technology transfer
The Empa spinoff CTsystems AG is acquired by Daetwyler, a company specializing in elastomer components. The partners see great market potential for a wide range of applications in industrial-scale stack actuators, the...
Sep 1, 2022 | Empa spin-off viboo
With energy prices soaring, heating costs will also inevitably rise in the coming winter. In order to mitigate this, solutions for operating buildings more efficiently are needed. The Empa spin-off viboo has developed an...
Aug 30, 2022 | Sensors and actuators of the future
Sustainable electronic components can be made from wood with the help of a novel process that uses a laser to engrave electrically conductive structures on veneers. A research team at Empa and at ETH’s Institute for...
Aug 25, 2022 | Empa at the Digital Days 2022
This year, Empa will once again be taking part in the Swiss Digital Days with various activities - with exciting insights into different research topics. At the opening event on September 5 in Bern, for example, a new...
Aug 23, 2022 | Aerogel Architecture Award 2022
In early August 2022, the Aerogel Architecture Award was presented at Empa for the second time. The winning project comes from Germany, while buildings from Switzerland take second and third place. They all impressively...
Aug 17, 2022 | Pioneering project on the traffic of the future
Empa, together with EBP and Fussverkehr Schweiz, analyzed in spring 2022 in Thalwil (ZH) how pedestrians react to automated vehicles. The automated parking assistant that had been used is the first system approved in...
Aug 9, 2022 | High Entropy Ceramics
Crystals consisting of wildly mixed ingredients - so-called high-entropy materials - are currently attracting growing scientific interest. Their advantage is that they are particularly stable at extremely high...
Aug 3, 2022 | Empa's pioneering work with CFRP rewarded
Elegant, efficient and groundbreaking: The fine-span light rail bridge in Stuttgart-Degerloch was awarded the German Civil Engineering Award 2022 - because of its innovative design as a network arch bridge with...
Aug 2, 2022 | Werner Siemens Foundation
Hubert Keiber, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Werner Siemens Foundation, describes why the Board decided to award a 15 million Swiss francs grant to a team of Empa researchers.
Jul 28, 2022 | Just add a drop of water
A team of researchers at Empa developed a water-activated disposable paper battery. The researchers suggest that it could be used to power a wide range of low-power, single-use disposable electronics – such as smart...
Jul 21, 2022 | Mycowood instruments
It is amazing what kind of magical sounds can be elicited from a piece of wood treated with fungi. The biotech violin, whose tonewood has been developed at Empa, is now taking to the concert stage with violinist Irina...
Jul 20, 2022 | CFRP pioneer honored
At the end of the 18th European Bridge Conference in Edinburgh in June, the former Director of Empa in Dübendorf, Urs Meier, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering research and developments in...
Jul 19, 2022 | Campus co-operate: Topping-out ceremony for the new Empa laboratory building
Empa's future laboratory building, currently under construction in Dübendorf on the new co-operate research campus, celebrated its topping-out ceremony on 14 July. The building will one day house highly sensitive...
Jul 14, 2022 | Climate protection
Empa is working intensively on solutions to reach the climate targets and is starting on its own doorstep. The new research campus currently under construction – co-operate – will be geared to minimizing greenhouse gas...
Jul 11, 2022 | Advanced Grant for Empa cement researcher
The cement industry emits large amounts of climate-damaging carbon dioxide – but alternative binders based on magnesium carbonate could even bind CO2. Concrete as a carbon sink? A research project at Empa, which had just...
Jul 7, 2022 | New clues to the development of Parkinson's disease
Copper exposure in the environment and the protein alpha-synuclein in the human brain could play an important role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. A team from Empa and the University of Limerick was able to...
Jul 6, 2022 | Interview
A successful implementation of Switzerland’s Energy Strategy 2050, personalized diagnostics and therapies for an aging society and a competence center for quantum technologies – Tanja Zimmermann has set herself ambitious...
Jul 5, 2022 | Ivan Lunati
While setting up his new lab at Empa, the Covid pandemic made Ivan Lunati's work quite a bit harder – and at the same time provided exciting questions for his research. In the future, Lunati will, together with his team,...