Alumni News

Material scientist Nicole Aegerter is co-founder of the ETH spin-off Antefil, which produces glass fibre-reinforced plastics for industrial lightweight structures. Nicole talks to us about what motivates her to be part of the circular economy.

Samuel Halim and Norman Lüchinger are co-founders of Avantama, which is a leader in high-tech materials for electronics. Both of them started off by studying Material Sciences and gained their PhDs in Chemical Engineering. In this interview, Samuel and Norman talk about their experiences of the PhD course at ETH and what their current business is about.

Sustainability of products and the utilisation of all by-products state major issues in industry. During a guided tour at FluidSolids AG, a group of Materials Alumni was able to experience first hand how the mentioned issue is implemented into practice.

For ten years, the Materials Alumni have been organizing a career event twice a year together with the Competence Center for Materials and Processes (MaP) or its predecessor organization Materials Research Center. Thereby, four material scientists always tell about their career.

Everybody has heard the rumours about secret passages below the ETH Hönggerberg Campus. 25 Materials Alumni and SAM members were able to look at the usually inaccessible corridors on 17th January 2019

On October 30, 2018 eleven members of the Materials Alumni put their problem-solving-skills and logical thinking to the test during tasks they had to solve in an adventure room.

A group of five Materials Alumni had the chance to visit SuSoS AG in Dübendorf, an ETH Spin-off company specializing in surface technology, on Thursday May 17, 2018. They were shown around by the Business Development Manager Dr. Christian Mathis, a fellow alumnus from the Department of Materials.

On 26 April 2018, the annual general meeting of the Materials Alumni took place at the main building at ETH Zürich where the board presented the prior year’s developments of the Materials affiliate organization.  

On the evening of 21 march, a bunch of Materials Alumni met at the museum Rietberg in order to take a fascinating trip to the Nasca in Peru.

Am Freitag, 13. Oktober 2017, trafen sich zwölf Materials Alumni in Zürich Wollishofen, um die anstrengende Arbeitswoche süss ausklingen zu lassen – die MiniSchoggi GmbH lud zum Pralinenatelier. Konditor Christian führte die Teilnehmer sehr charmant durch den Abend.

Am 6. September 2017 erhielten die Mitglieder der Materials Alumni die Gelegenheit, an einer technischen Führung durch den Hauptbahnhof Zürich teilzunehmen. Rund 20 Alumni folgten der Einladung und erhielten einen einmaligen Einblick in das unterirdische Leben des grössten Bahnhofs der Schweiz.

Am 4. Mai machten sich die Materials Alumni auf, die Glockengiesserei H. Rüetschi AG in Aarau zu besuchen. Obwohl die Führung bereits um 16 Uhr begann, kamen 16 Alumni. Kaum hatten sich die Teilnehmer eingefunden, wurden die Sicherheitsbrillen verteilt und es ging ab in die Giesserei. Die Alumni durften hautnah erleben, wie eine Glocke gegossen wird und erhielten spannende Informationen aus der 600-jähigen Geschichte der Giesserei.

Am 9. März trafen sich die Materials Alumni am schönen Bodensee, um die Firma Nägeli Swiss AG zu besuchen. Die Firma ist traditionell in der Stanz- und Umformtechnik tätig, hat sich aber in den letzten 30 Jahren zusätzlich auf Faserverbundtechnologie spezialisiert. Niklaus Nägeli, CEO der Firma, erläuterte die Unternehmensphilosophie und führte höchstpersönlich durch den Betrieb.