Alumni News

This year’s general assembly of Agri-Food Alumni took place in late October. The event was concluded with an inspiring lecture on the strategy of sustainable nutrition by the city of Zurich, given by biologist Yvonne Lötscher.

Patrick Rühs studied food science and graduated from ETH Zurich with a PhD in food process engineering. Today, he is the Head of Science at the start-up Planted that produces plant-based meat with great success. Patrick talks to us about his career and what motivates him in his daily work.

On 14 October 2021 a guided tour of the company Bühler AG took place in Uzwil. The affiliate organisation Agri-Food Alumni arranged the visit.

ETH alumnus Urs Niggli studied and graduated in agricultural and food sciences at ETH. For many years he has worked at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture and is considered one of the world’s leading lights on organic farming.

On 4 May, the Institute of Agricultural Sciences launched its extraordinary anniversary with an online event. Agri-Food Alumni was also participating while getting inspired by nostalgic pictures, exciting future perspectives and lively interactions.

Despite or precisely thanks to the digital realisation of the MyNetworking event, this year over 40 students were able to benefit from the experiences of our exciting guests. Seven professionals and ETH Agri-Food alumni from research, private industry in small and large companies answered the students' questions.

For the first time, we held the Agri-Food Alumni Science Forum titled "The establishment of a large-scale program for pesticide-free wheat production in Switzerland". Alumnus Prof. Dr. Robert Finger (Group for Agricultural Economics and Policy at ETH Zurich) and alumnus Dr. Niklas Möhring were invited as guest speakers.

The Annual General Meeting of ETH Alumni Agri-Food took place on 28 October 2020 with about 30 participants. The Board was pleased with the attendance of Peter Tresoldi from SVIAL, Dr. Claudio Sedivy, Co-Founder of WILDBIENE + PARTNER AG and Dr. Pascal Bertsch. At the end of the event, the participants were offered to enjoy a little culinary surprise. It is also great to toast from afar.

The group for “sustainable food processing” at ETH Zurich offered the member organisation Agri-Food a unique insight into the world of microalgae and showed how these versatile water dwellers can make our food system more sustainable.

The general assembly (MV) of ETH Alumni Agri-Food was held on November 6, 2019, and attended by roughly 30 participants. The members of the board were pleased with the visit from Peter Tresoldi, of SVIAL, Dr Lukas Böni, co-founder of ETH’s start up “planted” for the production of vegetal meat, and Michel Roux, co-president of Zurich’s forum for nutrition.

The ETH Alumni faculty groups Agri-Food and Biotech jointly celebrated 150 years anniversary on September 25, 2019. Our motto was plant cultivation and award-winning cuisine. About 35 interested Alumni dove into the world of science at Syngenta Crop Protection and were afterwards spoiled in the restaurant “Genuss-Apotheke”.

Agri-Food Alumni were able to get an exclusive glimpse through the ETH research station for Plant Sciences at the AgriTechDay. This gave Alumni the unique opportunity to dive into the fascinating world of digitalised and resource-efficient plant production.

The ETH Alumni Faculty Group Agri-Food carried out together with VIAL their second My Net-working Event for Agricultural and Food Science students and recent graduates. About 50 interested people participated in the event on March 18, 2019, and dedicated themselves to important questions around starting the career.

On November 8, the autumn event „Fit for Brain“ of the Agri-Food-Alumni talked about brain food or the influence of food on fitness and concentration. Marianne Botta, ETH Alumna AgriFood, subject teacher ETH, nutrition expert, author, fitness instructor, could enthuse many students on this subject.

On 27 April 2018, 37 members of the Agri-Food and OG Ticino Alumni met in Cadenazzo in order to visit the Campus di ricerca Cadenazzo that unites the two research institutes Agrospocope and WSL under the same roof.

Rund 100 Mitglieder, einige Gäste und sechs Referenten beteiligten sich rege am Ernährungsevent, welcher gemeinsam von den Agri-Food Alumni, HST Alumni und Umwelt Alumni am 17. Oktober 2017 durchgeführt wurde. Der Anlass begann traditionell in einem Hörsaal des ETH Hauptgebäudes und ging dann über ins Marktstandprinzip, wo sich Teilnehmer und Referenten im Foyer beim Apéro ungezwungen austauschen konnten.

Rund 40 Mitglieder und ein paar Gäste beteiligten sich am 21. Juni 2017 an der  ersten Mitgliederversammlung der Fachgruppe Agri-Food Alumni an der ETH Zürich. Sie wurde bereichert durch die zwei Kurzvorträge von Prof. Dr. Alexander Mathys zum Thema „Novel Protein" und Dr. Eduardo Perez zum Thema „Digitalization in the Agro-Food Sector".

Am Freitagabend, 12. Mai, führte ETH Alumna Graziella Rizzi über 40 Alumni der Fachgruppe Agri-Food Alumni und der Ortsgruppe Ticino Alumni durch die JOWA Bäckerei in Sant’Antonino, die sie seit vielen Jahren erfolgreich leitet. 115 Mitarbeiter stellen an sieben Tagen in der Woche sicher, dass die Tessiner Migros-Filialen stets frisches Brot haben.

Die Fachgruppe Agri-Food Alumni beteiligte sich an einer Konferenz der Europäischen Vereinigung der Agronomen (CEDIA) und der Life Science Universitäten (ICA) mit 50 Teilnehmenden aus 15 Ländern Europas, die anfangs Mai an der Hochschule für Bodenkultur in Wien stattfand. Diskutiert wurden Beispiele guter Zusammenarbeit von Hochschulen mit Alumni-Vereinen und Berufsverbänden im Interesse einer zukunfts- und praxisorientierten Lehre.