Alumni News

You know that moment when your smartphone shows you what happened ... months ago? You rub your eyes in surprise and can hardly believe that this "highlight" happened so long ago. This was the case for both of us when we were recently reminded that one of our "highlights" from the HST Alumni perspective - namely the career event - was exactly seven months ago today.

During this year's company tour at Medartis, 20 healthcare scientists from the HST Alumni Association had the opportunity to gain first-hand insights into the product portfolio, innovations and career opportunities at Medartis. The visit included a production tour, a presentation on innovation at Medartis and an information session from the HR department on career opportunities in the company for healthcare scientists.

On October 13, the two alumni associations HST and Human Medicine held a joint specialist event for the second time. The event on the topic of artificial intelligence and its application in medicine was discussed from various research, clinical and ethical perspectives.

It is 2 May 2023. Normally, spring weather lures joggers out into the natural oases of the city of Zurich: the many parks, the lake and the Limmat. The fact that spring 2023 in Switzerland will not exactly go down in the books as dry and warm was already apparent during the HST alumni's company visit to the company "On AG".

On a wintry Sunday, 27 November 2022, the HST Alumni Section held its first sports event at the ASVZ Irchel. Three teams of five participants each met to compete against each other in a friendly but competitive atmosphere.

On 28 October, the specialist event entered the next round. For the first time, the two alumni affiliate organisations Human Medicine and HST jointly organised this year's event on the topic of "Women in elite sport".

ETH alumnus Volker Bartenbach completed his PhD in the Health Sciences and Technology Department at ETH. He is CEO of Auxivo AG, which develops exoskeletons for use in industry. Volker talks to us today about his career to date and his fascination with exoskeletons.

Where do you live now? Are you back in Switzerland? Still working at XY? Have you ever heard of YZ again? ... As soon as we had entered the Alumni Pavilion on Friday evening, joyful reunions, lots of questions and lively conversations were encountered. Thereby, the aperitif was almost left out if our stomachs had not begun to growl loudly enough. Only by then, we started to enjoy the delicious buffet and bar.

On 23 May 2022, around 180 HST students, alumnae and alumni had the opportunity to meet HST graduates at the career event located at the ETH Zentrum and to ask questions about internships, career entry, everyday working life and further education. The event was a great success, which was also reflected by the numerous positive feedback from participants.

Tino Matter studied nanosciences at the University of Basel before obtaining a PhD from ETH. He is a co-founder of the start-up “anavo medical”, which aims to use nanoparticles to greatly improve the healing of chronic wounds.

Almost 30 HST alumnae and alumni gained exclusive insights into the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo from the perspective of coaches, officials and athletes: Louis Heyer, Tamara Mathis and Marcel Hug gave gripping presentations about preparations, pre-camps, the Olympic Village and competitions. What remains are exciting stories, funny anecdotes and the fascination for the major events of the Olympics and Paralympics.

The first "HST meets Industry" event took place on 29 September. At the premiere of this platform, around 25 HST alumnae and alumni took the opportunity to get acquainted with Boston Scientific as a potential employer and to talk to various company representatives.

ETH alumna Elena Roos obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Health Sciences at ETH. However, she is most well known for her orienteering successes. After a year with no international events, in 2021 she has delivered many more outstanding performances, including her first individual medal at a European championship. As well as being a top athlete, Elena works in performance diagnostics and as an athletics trainer.

ETH alumnus David Mzee loves sport and lives and breathes it. While at university, he survived a major accident, making him a tetraplegic.Thanks to the support of ETH, he graduated with a Bachelor’s in Human Movement Sciences and Sport after a slight delay. On his Master’s course he was best in year, and then added a diploma enabling him to teach in secondary schools. Through the work of a research project, he is now taking his first steps and is giving hope to many paraplegics.

Speakers from various HST-related working areas presented their career ladders and current jobs virtually at the 12th career event of the Health Sciences and Technology (HST) affiliate organisation. With over 200 students as well as HST alumnae and alumni attending, there was a huge interest in asking questions about internships, starting a career, day-to-day professional life, and advanced education.

At the end of February, the HST alumni met online for a social games evening. During the game "Codenames", creativity and combinatorics were in high demand.

On November 12, the HST Alumni career event took place on the topic of "Continuing Education". For the first time, we met online rather than physically. After the presentations of various continuing education opportunities, it quickly became clear that the range of options in the HST field is also extensive. From this large spectrum, some HST graduates introduced themselves with their career so far, including further education.

This year, the large lecture hall at the ETH main building was replaced by a Zoom main meeting and the seminar rooms by Zoom group meetings. With at times over 150 participants at times, our main event was as equally well attended as last year's "physical" version.

Approximately 10 HST Alumni met to the second virtual X-Change on 16 July. A quiz about Antarctica served as an icebreaker. The participants were able to discuss freely in groups after that. The virtual rooms were used for a lively exchange.

At the end of May, HST Alumni met for their regular "HST X-Change". The sociable event usually takes place in a bar in different Swiss cities. The "long established" meet the "fresh from the mint" as well as "still students" for a round table. This time, the event took place virtually of course.

To celebrate this year's 150th anniversary of the ETH Alumni Association, the faculty group HST created a new format - HST X-Change. This "regulars’ table" already took place successfully three times and enjoys a growing popularity amongst the HST Alumni members.

On the 10th career event of the faculty group Health Sciences and Technology (HST) on March 19, 2019, speakers of different HST related fields presented their career path and their latest job. 150 students, HST alumnae and alumni took that opportunity and asked their questions about internships, career entry, every day working live and training programs.

Already for the (at least for now) last time we choose an «Alumnus of the month». The completion of our twelve-part series is Dominique Michel. After his HST master’s degree in « medical technologies » and a year of project-leading experience at ETH juniors he works now by Oakura Ventures AG as STO (Security Token Offering) lead.

Patrick Hörnlimann, our «Alumnus of the Month» November, completed his specialised master’s degree in «Biomedical Engineering» (D-ITET) successfully after his HST bachelor’s degree. He works as an engineer in the field «New Product Development» at Valenco and as Co-founder of the start-up «viAbz» - two different roles in two different specialised fields. He tells us how he manages and what he finds particularly interesting.

On Friday October 26, 2018 the faculty association HST Alumni celebrated its 10 year anniversary together with 40 guests at the Alumni Pavillon at ETH Zurich. The celebration was combined with a faculty event on "E-Health" for which Professor Ernst Hafen and Raphel Frangi held a presentation. 

Our Alumnus of the month of October is Patrik Simmler. He is doing his PhD at the ETH Institute of Molecular Health Sciences in the Krek-group. In the interview he gives us an insight into his various tasks and reveals what aspects were important to him while choosing his PhD.

Our alumna of the month of September is Denise Bernhart. She works at the Management Consulting firm Synpulse.

Since the completion of her master degree in «Molecular Health Sciences», Lara Fux has been working as Clinical Project Manager at the Swiss Paediatric Oncology Group (SPOG).

For a year, Michaela Bürge has been working as scientific staff at Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, in the department of medical devices where she oversees the safety of medical devices in the market in her daily work.

In June, the alumnus of the month Marc Molnar comes from canton Lucerne. Marc completed his HST master degree at ETH Zürich with a specialization in “medical technology” and has been working for the Geistlich Pharma AG in Wolhusen as scientific expert in the area of material discovery research since June 2017.

After five years without a company visit, the HST Alumni organized a tour for their10-year anniversary. SuSoS AG, an ETH Spin-off company specializing in surface technology, gave the HST Alumni insights into their daily work.

The annual career event with students and HST Alumni at the ETH Zürich is a key event in the HST Alumni annual calendar. This year the speakers presented their current jobs from different HST work areas and gave the participants tips for their career entry.

Lucas Schmid is the Alumnus of the month. He has made his passion into his profession and is working as education responsible for Swiss Cycling as well as research assistant for the Swiss Federal Office of Sport BASPO.

Since completing her HST master degree in “Molecular Health Science”, Nadja Widrig has been working as Technician at the “Next generation Sequencing Lab» at Microsynth AG in Balgach.

Since her masters in HST with a specialization in medical technology, Michelle Anliker has been working as application scientist for the Tecan Group AG in Männedorf, an international Swiss Biotech company that specializes in lab technology and robotics in the field of life science for clinical diagnostics, bio pharma and forensics.

In parallel to doing their master’s studies in health science and technology, these two ambitious health care scientists founded their own business called «IDUN Technologies AG» last year.

In connection with the10- year anniversary of the HST Alumni, an ‘Alumni of the month’ will be presented in order to introduce different areas of the HST degree program. The first is Gudrun Einarsdottir from Island who switched to the ETH in 2014 for her master’s degree, specializing in neuroscience. Since completing her degree in 2017 she has been working as Hardware Engineer for VirtaMed AG in Schlieren.

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.

Bereits zum 8. Mal fand der Berufsevent der Health Sciences and Technology (HST) Alumni statt. Wiederum stellten Referenten aus verschiedenen Arbeitsbereichen der Bewegungs- und Gesundheitswissenschaften ihren Werdegang und die aktuelle Anstellung vor. Mit 174 Teilnehmenden war der Event ein voller Erfolg.