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| 2023-03-28, Archive |
Women in Science campaign 2023 |
| Women pioneers in research yesterday and today |
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| From February to June 2023, we will present one of our current women professors and one international pioneer of the research field - because women in science need to be seen. With this initiative and its diverse program, we want to bring science closer to EVERYONE and inspire the next generation in particular. MNF's Women in Science campaign with Prof. Meredith (Merry) Christine Schuman - Prof. Corinna Ulcigrai - Prof. Alexandria (Ali) Liang - Prof. Ravit Helled - Prof. Catalina Pimiento Hernandez. |
| Korinna Esfeld, Dr. |
| Email Author |
| 2023-02-27, News |
Less fake news but increasing polarization on Twitter |
| Social media is transforming political communication dynamics. Together with an international team of researchers, Alexandre Bovet want to better understand the role of these new dynamics in politics. |
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| Social media has been transforming political communication dynamics for over a decade. Any social media user has the potential to directly reach millions of users, in a few minutes, and influence political campaigns. Such control over political discussions used to be the privilege of just a few persons, principally journalists. On social media, they now have to compete directly with politicians, users spreading fake news, and members of the public for our attention. To better understand the role of these new dynamics in politics, together with an international team of researchers, Alexandre Bovet, Assistant Professor in Quantitative Network Science at the Department of Mathematics and the Digital Society Initiative, analyzed nearly a billion tweets sent during the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections. The team measured the volume of politically biased content and the number of users propagating such information. By reconstructing the networks of news diffusion they were able to identify news influencers, i.e. the users with the greatest ability to spread news in the Twitter network. Collecting data from two subsequent elections enabled the team to see trends in participation, polarization, and stability of different kinds of influencers. In a broader sense, it revealed the role that the social media platform played in the elections. On the positive side, they measured a decrease in the number of tweets and users propagating fake and extremely biased news in 2020 compared to 2016, probably due to the measures put in place by Twitter to tackle such content. But they also revealed an increase in polarization, at the level of the top influencers and of the average users, in 2020, i.e. users were less likely to share information from other users with opposite political ideologies. This indicates increasing echo chambers for users with a lack of contrary views. They also observed interesting changes in the top news influencers. Between 2016 and 2020, for influencers with center and right-leaning political ideologies, the number of influencers affiliated with media organizations (journalists and accounts belonging to news outlets) declined by 10%, replaced mostly by politicians. On the other hand, influencers spreading fake news, who were largely comprised of users not affiliated with political or media organizations in 2016, have been replaced in good part by new users affiliated with media organizations that emerged between 2016 and 2020. This change in the news media landscape on Twitter indicates a shift in the relative influence of journalists and political organizations as well as a professionalization of the disinformation industry. This research reveals the quickly changing dynamics of social media platforms. It also asks the question of how platforms should be designed and regulated in order to control the increase of polarization and echo chambers. Alexandre Bovet was joined in the research by Boleslaw Szymanski, James Flamino, and Brendan Cross from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Alessandro Galeazzi of the University of Brescia and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Stuart Feldman of Schmidt Futures, Michael W. Macy of Cornell University, Zhenkun Zhou of the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, Hernán A. Makse and Matteo Serafino of the City College of New York.
Top, the latent ideology of the top five influencers of each category is shown as a box plot representing the distribution of the ideology of the users who retweeted them. Bottom, the distributions for the users are shown in green and the distributions for the top 100 influencers of each news media category (computed as the median of the ideology of their retweeters) are displayed in purple. Box plots indicate the median and the 25th and 75th percentiles of the distributions with whiskers indicating the 5th and 95th percentiles. The sample size used for the computation of each box plot is reported to their side. Pie charts next to the influencers’ names represent the news categories to which they belong (weighted by their respective CI ranks in each category). (link to figure: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01550-8/figures/6)  |
| Alexandre Bovet |
| Email Author |
| 2023-06-27, Sci. Publication |
Arthropods in species-rich forests contribute to improved productivity |
| An international team of Chinese, German and Swiss researchers has shown that forests with higher tree species richness tend to have a greater diversity of arthropods. In addition, the study shows that higher tree diversity promotes productivity, due to the suppression of herbivores by enemy arthropods. The results have recently been published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. |
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| An international team of Chinese, German and Swiss researchers has shown that forests with higher tree species richness tend to have a greater diversity of arthropods. In addition, the study shows that higher tree diversity promotes productivity, due to the suppression of herbivores by enemy arthropods. The results have recently been published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. These findings underscore the importance of arthropod diversity as a mediator of tree diversity effects on forest productivity. The work suggests that managing forests for increased productivity will require both increased tree diversity and multitrophic diversity. Forests are home to 80% of terrestrial plant and animal diversity, making them a crucial component of global biodiversity conservation. However, biodiversity in forests is under serious threat from anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Species-rich groups, such as arthropods, are declining dramatically due to the degradation of forests and loss of plant diversity. Most studies on biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships have focused solely on plant diversity, neglecting the impact of the diversity of other trophic groups. In consequence, it remains unclear how the diversity of herbivores and their enemies affects ecosystem functions. Given the importance of forests to providing essential ecosystem services and global biodiversity, it is vital to understand these interconnections and take action to protect them. Using five years of data on aboveground herbivorous, predatory, and parasitoid arthropods along with tree growth data within a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment in southeast China (BEF-China), the authors reveal that the effects of increased tree species richness were consistently positive for species richness and abundance of herbivores, predators, and parasitoids. This finding is consistent with a previous study from another large grassland biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment) and reinforces the importance of conserving plant diversity for preserving arthropod diversity. However, in contrast to the bottom-up control of arthropod diversity by plant diversity in the grassland study from central Europe, the new study in the species-rich forests of south-east China reveals that higher tree diversity can enhance the top-down control of enemies over herbivores, thereby contributing to increased productivity. An earlier study conducted at the same sites demonstrated that increasing plant diversity can promote forest productivity directly. The new study further shows that increasing plant diversity can also indirectly increase forest productivity by promoting arthropod diversity and trophic interactions. Prof. Xiaojuan Liu, a former postdoc at UZH and last author of the study, says, “this underscores the critical role of conservation efforts aimed at preserving biodiversity in forests.” Overall, although several recent studies have documented declines in terrestrial arthropod biodiversity, few have explored the consequences for ecosystems. “This work closes this gap by revealing the important role of arthropod diversity in BEF relationships”, says Prof. Bernhard Schmid, one of the senior authors of the study.
Article: Yi Li, Bernhard Schmid, Andreas Schuldt, Shan Li, Ming-Qiang Wang, Felix Fornoff, Michael Staab, Peng-Fei Guo, Perttu Anttonen, Douglas Chesters, Helge Bruelheide, Chao-Dong Zhu, Keping Ma, Xiaojuan Liu. Multitrophic arthropod diversity mediates tree diversity effects on primary productivity. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2023. Article link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02049-1
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| Bernhard Schmid |
| Email Author |
| 2023-06-27, Sci. Publication |
1 million from the Werner Siemens Foundation for project idea |
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| With their project on the development of green hydrogen, Greta Patzke and David Tilley are among six project groups to receive 1 million Swiss francs from the Werner Siemens Foundation (WSS). On the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the WWS had announced an ideas competition for a WSS research center "Technologies for Sustainability". In doing so, they are funding a WSS research center that will research and develop technologies for sustainable resource use. The center will be endowed with a total of 100 million Swiss francs for a funding period of ten years. This decision will be taken in December 2023. |
| KE |
| Email Author |
| https://www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/news/2023/wss_million_chemistry.html |
| 2023-05-04, Awards and Honors |
The countdown is on! - Titan arum flowers in Botanical Garden UZH! |
| After four years, the time has come again, the Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum, arum) begins to unfold its inflorescence. It will only take a few more days until the huge flower is fully open and emits its special scent - carrion smell. When it does, the plant will bloom for only 48 hrs. |
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| After four years, the time has come again, the Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum, arum) begins to unfold its inflorescence. It will only take a few more days until the huge flower is fully open and emits its special scent - carrion smell. When it does, the plant will bloom for only 48 hrs. When exactly this will be the case, we do not know yet. Perhaps over ascension? On the website of the Botanical Garden you can see the current state of development of the inflorescence. Once the flower is open, the tropical house will remain open in the evening until 9 pm.
A few more facts?
The larger the underground corm, the larger the inflorescence. In its native Sumatra, with a corm of about 100 kg, the inflorescence can grow up to 3 meters high and wide. In our case, the corm weighs 12 kg and the inflorescence will be correspondingly smaller - it will grow about 1 meter high.
The spectacle lasts only two days: a large spathe with a spadix in the middle unfolds and fills the tropical house with the smell of carrion. In its native habitat, the plant uses this to attract carrion beetles, which drop into the spathe and pollinate the many small flowers in the lower half of the spadix.
This is followed by a dormant period of several months, after which a leaf is produced that can grow up to 5 meters high. This allows the plant to photosynthesize to regenerate the corm. It can take years before the plant blooms the next time.  |
| Botanischer Garten der Universität Zürich, Caroline S. Weckerle |
| Email Author |
| Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/botanischer_garten_zurich/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bg.uzh.ch
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| 2023-05-21, Event |
"frighteningly beautiful pictures" – facts&forecasts on climate change |
| From June 1 to July 2, 2023, "erschreckend schöne Bilder" will be on display at Photobastei Zurich. They stage facts and forecasts about the climate crisis in an impressive and striking form. The exhibition is organized by the Fachklasse Grafik Luzern and the Department of Geography of the University of Zurich. |
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| For decades, scientists have been warning about the influence of humans on the Earth's climate system. But it takes a lot of persuasion to get an entire society to rethink and act. Which innovative forms of communication are suitable to make scientific facts vivid and to reach and touch people outside the scientific community? In a cooperative project with the Department of Geography at the University of Zurich, students from the Lucerne Graphic Design class presented facts and forecasts about climate change in a striking way. The aim was to provide food for thought in the current debate by illustrating the dramatic dimensions of climate change in a surprising way. Within this framework, 36 "frighteningly beautiful pictures" were created - between 2019 and 2022, in two workshops, with 25 students. The images are based on reports by the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, the Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, the National Centre for Climate Services NCCS, as well as reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change"), to which researchers from the University of Zurich have contributed significantly. |
| Magdalena Seebauer |
| Email Author |
| https://www.photobastei.ch/exhibition/exhibition-details?id=109 |
| https://www.geo.uzh.ch/de/events/erschreckend-schoene-bilder.html |
| @uzh_geo |
| 2023-06-01, Event |
Honorary doctorate for Maude Barlow |
| On the occasion of UZH's Dies Academicus on 29 April 2023, Maude Barlow was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The faculty thereby honors Maude Barlow's commitment to the recognition of the fundamental human right to water. She is also a founding member of the Blue Community, which UZH joined in May 2022. |
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| On the occasion of UZH's Dies Academicus on 29 April 2023, Maude Barlow was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The faculty thereby honors Maude Barlow's commitment to the recognition of the fundamental human right to water. She is also a founding member of the Blue Community, which UZH joined in May 2022. |
| KE |
| Email Author |
| https://www.uzh.ch/cmsssl/de/explore/portrait/awards/hc/2023/mnf.html |
| Dekanat |
| @UZH_Science |
| 2023-05-05, Event |
Integrating Diverse Forms of Knowledge in Health Care Research |
| Dr. Chloe Pasin, fellow at the Collegium Helveticum, is organising a workshop on Tuesday June 20: Integrating Diverse Forms of Knowledge in Health Care Research. How can interdisciplinary studies in health help bridge between the biomedical field and other academic fields as well as non-academic settings to expand our global understanding of health and address health inequalities? |
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| Dr. Chloe Pasin, fellow at the Collegium Helveticum, is organising a workshop on Tuesday June 20: Integrating Diverse Forms of Knowledge in Health Care Research. How can interdisciplinary studies in health help bridge between the biomedical field and other academic fields as well as non-academic settings to expand our global understanding of health and address health inequalities? This is the main question, which this workshop wants to discuss. Structured around two panels, the workshop seeks to bring experts from various fields into dialog with each other. |
| Chloé Pasin |
| Email Author |
| https://collegium.ethz.ch/veranstaltungen/?event=13031&cat=upcoming |
| Collegium Helveticum |
| @ChloePasin |
| 2023-06-02, Event |
3-2-1 Go Euclid! |
| What is dark matter? What drives the accelerating expansion of our Universe? These and more questions could be answered by Euclid, the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission which is set to launch in July 2023. Several UZH researchers are actively involved in the project and will tell us more in the Space Café. Join us on June 16, 2023, at Irchel Campus (room Y16-G-15). |
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| The UZH Space Hub, in collaboration with the Euclid members at Institute for Computational Science , will be organizing a special Space Cafe event dedicated to Euclid next month. Euclid is an ESA mission designed to map the large-scale structure of the Universe with unprecedented accuracy. It aims to tackle the most pressing open questions in Cosmology, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. As the launch of Euclid is scheduled for the first half of July, we would like to take this opportunity to share with you the objectives of the Euclid mission and what we expect to discover over the next decade. Moreover, this event will serve as a celebration of the imminent launch, and we would be delighted to have you join us. The event will take place on June 16th at the Irchel Campus, starting at 2:30 pm. It will feature short presentations from the Euclid members, followed by an Apero commencing at approximately 4:30 pm. To view the full program, please visit the following link: https://www.spacehub.uzh.ch/en/events/SpaceCafe/Euclid.html. We kindly request that you register via the webpage, as it will assist us in planning the catering. However, spontaneous participation is also welcomed. We hope to see many of you there, as your presence will make the event even more enjoyable. |
| Francesca Lepori |
| Email Author |
| 2023-06-07, Event |
Why become an astrophysicist? |
| In a talk followed by an Apéro, Prof. Ravit Helled will talk about her career in science, the fascination of astrophysics, the importance of participating in space missions, and the qualities required to become an astrophysicist. |
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| KE |
| Email Author |
| https://www.ema.uzh.ch/de/register/why-become-an-astrophysicist.html |
| 2023-06-08, Event |
Life Science Core Facility Day |
| The UZH technology platforms support research with a wide range of services and promote know-how transfer and interdisciplinary cooperation. |
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| The UZH technology platforms support research with a wide range of services and promote know-how transfer and interdisciplinary cooperation. They will present at the Life Science Core Facility Day at Irchel on 22nd August 2023 starting 2PM. Some examples will be presented of what they offer and how they can support you to get best results out of your research. No registration, no fees. |
| - |
| Email Author |
| https://www.research.uzh.ch/en/infrastructure/platforms.html |
| https://www.research.uzh.ch/en/infrastructure/platforms.html |
| 2023-07-26, Event |
Swiss 3Rs Day |
| The Swiss 3Rs Day is a full-day event featuring 13 speakers from industry, academia and animal welfare organisations. This year the keynote speech will be held by Hannah Harrison on In vitro modelling of breast cancer metastasis and niche priming (Manchester University). Topics covered will range from culture of care to digitalization of in vivo studies, |
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| The 2023 Swiss 3Rs Day will be taking place at USI, Lugano on September 19th. Registration is now open: https://www.eventbrite.ch/e/615686724567 The Swiss 3Rs Day is a full-day event featuring 13 speakers from industry, academia and animal welfare organisations. This year the keynote speech will be held by Hannah Harrison on In vitro modelling of breast cancer metastasis and niche priming (Manchester University). Topics covered will range from culture of care (Thomas Bertelsen, Novo Nordisk) to digitalization of in vivo studies (Eoin O' Connor, Roche), zebrafish welfare (Chloe Stevens, RSPCA) and many more exciting 3Rs-related topics. Stay tuned for the full speaker schedule and vendors. (1-day continuing education accreditation will be given for attendance).
Abstracts for Poster Submissions can be sent to info@swiss3rcc.org Regular abstracts should have max 250 words and preferred graphical abstracts a min 300 dpi. The deadline for abstract submissions for posters is August 19th.
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| Paulin Jirkof |
| Email Author |
| 2023-07-26, Event |
feminno – female innovation and career development in Sciences |
| Are you a female scientist or alumna and interested in entrepreneurship training? Then apply for the feminno entrepreneurship program. |
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| Are you a female scientist or alumna and interested in entrepreneurship training? Then apply for the feminno entrepreneurship program. feminno offers mentoring and career development for female scientists interested in innovation and addresses female researchers from Life Sciences, Natural Sciences, Tech and Humanities. It is a program for aspiring female founders with lots of female coaches, mentors and role models from the industry and the start-up world. The program starts in September 2023 comprising a Career retreat, Innovation seminars, Trainings (Innovation Workshop, Negotiation skills for conflict situations, business deals), Company visits and exploratory workshops and the Closing event with the feminno community. More info on the program is found here: www.feminno.ch To apply use thus link: https://lnkd.in/eJvq4qGH (Deadline is July 30, 2023) |
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| 2023-07-26, Event |
Women in Herpetology |
| Gözde Cilingir, PostDoc in the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, contributed to the book "Women in Herpetology: 50 Stories from Around the World". |
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| Gözde Cilingir, PostDoc in the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, contributed to the book "Women in Herpetology: 50 Stories from Around the World". The project and book gathered 50 women from different cultures and backgrounds who shared their life, career and passion for amphibians and reptiles. In this way, they collectively put a spotlight on the diversity of women in the field of Herpetology. |
| Gözde Cilingir |
| Email Author |
| 2023-08-30, News |
Scientifica 2023 |
| The Scientifica is the science festival of the UZH and ETHZ. This year, researchers will again inspire young and old! This year's theme? "What holds the world together." |
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| Scientifica is the science festival of the UZH and ETHZ. This year, researchers will again inspire young and old! This year's theme? "What holds the world together." All information on the website: https://scientifica.ch/en/ |
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| 2023-08-27, Event |
FameLab Switzerland Final 2023 |
| Join us for an evening of captivating scientific presentations by young researchers from EPFL, ETHZ, University of Basel and University of Zurich. |
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| Experience an evening of captivating scientific talks by young researchers from EPFL, ETHZ, University of Basel and University of Zurich. Ruchi Manglunia, Institute of Quantitative Biomedicine UZH, Michael Herzog, Institute of Microbiology ETH and Anish Kirtane, Institute of Biogeochemistry and Environmental Dynamics ETH from Zurich will participate in the national final. At FameLab young scientists have 3 minutes to inspire the audience with a scientific presentation. Free admission. No registration needed. More about FameLab her: www.famelab.ch
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| Silvie Cuperus |
| Email Author |
| 2023-08-21, Event |
Future Plan(t)s - Art meets Science - 25 August to 10 September 2023 |
| An exhibition of 18 artists at the SAE Greenouse Art-Lab |
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| The future of our plants is one of the greatest challenges that humanity is facing. How do 17 renowned artists respond to this current discourse and the future of plants? What is the future of plants and their interaction under the drought conditions of climate change? Should plants adapt or diversify to climate change? Will they lose their food base? Can our soil, seeds and water be conserved? In this exhibition the artists reflect on these questions in the Greenhouse Art-Lab of the SAE Sustainable Agroecosystem Group at ETH Zurich. The artworks, installations and performances will try to raise awareness about the future of plants, soil, food, food and water. These artistic contributions will be encouraged through a process of connecting with the research group to learn more about sustainable agroecosystems research. Location: SAE Greenouse Art-Lab, Häldeliweg 19, 8044 Zürich. Opening hours: Friday, 17:00 to 22:00, Saturday and Sundays, 10:00 to 18:00 |
| Silvie Cuperus |
| Email Author |
| 2023-08-27, Event |
Future Plan(t)s - exhibition side events: LASER TALK I |
| Future of Soil – Plant interactions: Tuesday, 29 August 2023, 18:30 to 22:00 Location: SAE Greenhouse Art Lab, Häldeliweg 19, 8044 Zürich |
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| In connection with the exhibition Future Plant(s) Life Science Zurich is hosting together with the SAE Sustainable Agroecosystems Group ETH two Laser Talks. Join us for these interesting talks in English with artists and scientists about "The Future of Soil - Plant Interactions" and "Resilience, Nutrition, Food Systems". For more information, please see our website. Register for the talk on 29 August here The talks will be in English. |
| Dr. Silvie Cuperus |
| Email Author |
| 2023-08-28, Event |
Future Plan(t)s - exhibition side events: LASER TALK II |
| Resilience, Nutrition, Food Systems, Tuesday, 5 September 2023, 18:30 to 22:00. Location: SAE Greenhouse Art Lab, Häldeliweg 19, 8044 Zürich |
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| In connection with the exhibition Future Plant(s) Life Science Zurich is hosting together with the SAE Sustainable Agroecosystems Group ETH two Laser Talks. Join us for these interesting talks in English with artists and scientists about "The Future of Soil - Plant Interactions" and "Resilience, Nutrition, Food Systems". The talk will be held in English. For more information, please see our website. Register for the talk here. |
| Dr. Silvie Cuperus |
| Email Author |
| 2023-08-28, Event |
ZEIT Podcast climate policy |
| In a podcast for the German ZEIT, Prof. Kai Niebert explains what works to stop the climate crisis, what role education (does not) have, why the actions of the "Last Generation" are a dead end and also what the Friday for Future achieved. |
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| In a podcast for the German ZEIT with political editor Petra Pinzler and science editor Stefan Schmitt, Prof. Kai Niebert discusses the research and the work of the research team. It's about what works to stop the climate crisis, what role education (doesn't) have, why the actions of the Last Generation are a dead end and also what the Fridays for Future have achieved. https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/2023-08/kai-niebert-klimapolitik-protest-krisenpodcast |
| Kai Niebert |
| Email Author |
| 2023-08-25, News |
Symposium to Commemorate Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist K. Alex Müller |
| On 21 September 2023, a symposium will be held in the UZH auditorium to commemorate Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist K. Alex Müller |
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| High-temperature superconductivity is as fascinating as it is promising – for basic research and when it comes to developing novel technologies for use in power stations, medical technology, traffic engineering or computer technology. 21 September 2023, Aula (KOL-G-201), Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich Registration required: UZH Event Portal
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| UZH Kommunikation |
| Email Author |
| https://www.uzh.ch/de/events/events/university/gedenkanlass-k-a-muller |
| Dekanat |
| 2023-08-25, Event |
Lecture «What’s in a name? Bias in peer review» |
| On 25 September 2023 the Gender Equality and Diversity UZH organizes in collaboration with the URPP Equality of Opportunity the lecture «What’s in a name? Bias in peer review». |
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| On 25 September 2023 UZH Gender Equality and Diversity organizes in collaboration with the URPP Equality of Opportunity the lecture «What’s in a name? Bias in peer review». The lecture is given by Prof. Stefan Palan, University of Graz. His research focuses on human behavior in general and on human behavior in a financial context in particular. He has recently also focused more and more time on studying and speaking about the peer review and scientific publication process and how to make it more equitable and fair. For more information and registration please visit: https://www.gleichstellung.uzh.ch/de/ueber_uns/grundlagen/diversity/netzwerk/meeting3.html |
| UZH Gleichstellung und Diversität |
| Email Author |
| https://www.gleichstellung.uzh.ch/de/ueber_uns/grundlagen/diversity/netzwerk/meeting3.html |
| 2023-08-25, Event |
Exhibition to Commemorate K. Alex Müller |
| An exhibition in the Lichthof Irchel will provide insights into the outstanding research and life of K. Alex Müller. |
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| From 19 September (opening event at 4:00pm) to 14 October, an exhibition in the Lichthof Irchel will provide insights into the outstanding research and life of K. Alex Müller. The exhibition describes the phenomenon of superconductivity, in particular high-temperature superconductivity, and shows where superconductivity is used in technical applications in everyday life. |
| Katharina Müller |
| Email Author |
| 2023-08-30, Event |
Appointment symposium OHI |
| The APTT Appointment symposium for the newly founded One Health Institute of the UZH on September 21st with presentations by the candidates. |
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| You are cordially invited to the appointment symposium related to the APTTs “One Health with focus Epidemiology” and “One Health with focus Evolution” of the One Health Institute.
08:30 am – 05:00 pm University of Zurich, Campus Irchel Nord (Tierspital) TFA 00.44 |
| OHI |
| Email Author |
| 2023-09-07, Event |
Wissen to go – abends im Zoologischen Museum UZH |
| Ab September 2023 ist das Zoologische Museum am Donnerstagabend von 17:30 bis 20:00 Uhr geöffnet. |
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| Ab September 2023 ist das Zoologische Museum am Donnerstagabend von 17:30 bis 20:00 Uhr geöffnet. Nehmen Sie um 18 Uhr an einer halbstündigen Führung teil, diskutieren Sie mit Naturfilmern oder eignen Sie sich an einem Kurzvortrag neues Wissen an! Das Angebot richtet sich an Erwachsene, ist kostenlos und kann ohne Anmeldung genutzt werden.
Oktober 2023 November 2023 Dezember 2023 *eine Zusammenarbeit mit der Zoologischen Gesellschaft Zürich |
| Zoologisches Museum der Universität Zürich |
| Email Author |
| 2023-09-07, Event |
Annual Open Innovation in Life Sciences 2023 Conference |
| Registrations Open for the Annual Open Innovation in Life Sciences 2023 Conference (Hybrid edition: virtual conference + in-person networking apéro) | 26th - 27th Oct |
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| Registrations are now open for the 6th Annual Open Innovation in Life Sciences conference (#OILS23), taking place this year on 26th - 27th October 2023. Register now to delve into the world of open science and its challenges and success stories on the Innovation Day, plus a program tailored to enhance your professional journey on Career Day. The virtual event spans across two thrilling days, packed with: Riveting Panel Discussions on topics, such as patient-oriented research and Science communication in the age of social media While the content is virtual, the #OILS23 conference will host a Networking Evening Apéro at Lichthof UZH Irchel (26th Oct) to connect with other scientists and science enthusiasts. Master students can attend the virtual conference entirely for free! Just provide the student details during the registration and join the discussion on open science and innovation. Check out the #OILS23 conference website for the complete agenda! |
| helen.stauffer@lifescience.uzh.ch |
| Email Author |
| 2023-09-13, Event |
Mastering iPSC: Insights from iPSZürich & STEMCELL Technologies |
| SAVE THE DATE! On November 7th the iPSZürich committee in collaboration with STEMCELL Technologies will present a special day, fully dedicated to iPSC research. Whether you are an expert, a beginner or even just considering working with iPSC, this day will have something to offer! |
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| Ambra Villani |
| Email Author |
| 2023-10-14, Event |
BioVisionCenter Symposium, November 9th - 10th |
| This kick-off Symposium aims at celebrating the launch of the BioVisionCenter by highlighting current initiatives for bioimage analysis and identifying opportunities to connect across the bioimage analysis community. The Symposium will feature invited talks from local stakeholders as well as national and international leaders in the field, and will offer ample time for networking and discussions. |
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| Dear all, |
| valentina.marcelli@mls.uzh.ch |
| Email Author |
| https://www.biovisioncenter.uzh.ch/en.html |
| https://www.mls.uzh.ch/en.html |
| 2023-11-04, Event |
Winning Project for “PORTAL UZH” Selected |
| The planned new building called PORTAL UZH is a key part of the mid- to long-term development of Irchel Campus. The conclusion of the architectural competition marks the first step in making the plans a reality. |
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| Over the next quarter of a century, Irchel Campus will be fundamentally modernized and expanded, and its building density increased. The planned “PORTAL UZH” will be a linchpin in these developments. The new building will make it possible for the campus’ technical and logistical infrastructure to be modernized, as well as providing additional space needed for teaching and research. |
| Directorate for Real Estate and Facility Management |
| Email Author |
| https://www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/news/2023/portal-uzh.html |
| 2023-12-12, News |
Nature Communications by Melika Payvand (INI): Neuromorphic Mosaic |
| Despite millions of years of evolution, the fundamental wiring principle of biological brains remains preserved... |
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| Despite millions of years of evolution, the fundamental wiring principle of biological brains remains preserved: Dense local and sparse global connectivity, aka small-worldness, optimizing both computation and the utilization of the underlying biological substrate. Inspired by these principles, we introduce Mosaic: a 2D analog systolic array comprised of densely connected, small neuron tiles (RNNs), which communicate with proximity neighbour RNNs through tiny distributed routers. Mosaic uses both computing and routing locally on novel memory technologies to achieve orders of magnitude reduction in routing energy compared to current accelerators. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44365-x
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| Melika Payvand |
| Email Author |
| 2024-01-10, Sci. Publication |
MNF Shark Bay Dolphin Research in SRF Einstein |
| The SRF television program Einstein shows the dolphin research of the Evolutionary Genetics Group. |
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| If you have ever wondered what it is the dolphin researchers from our Evolutionary Genetics Group and Shark Bay Dolphin Research are doing in the field, check out SRF Einstein "Im Bann der Delfine", available for streaming. |
| Michael Krützen |
| Email Author |
| 2024-01-10, News |
Swiss scientists win time on top European supercomputer |
| Scientists with the Square Kilometer Array Switzerland (SKACH) consortium will use the largest ever allocation of node hours on Europe’s LUMI-G supercomputer to conduct a simulation looking at the role of turbulence and gravity in the universe. |
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| Scientists working with the Swiss arm of the international Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), the world’s largest and most sensitive radio observatory currently under construction, have been awarded 5.500.000 node hours on the LUMI supercomputer in Finland for 12-months. When they come online, SKAO telescopes will look at the history of the Universe as far back as the Cosmic Dawn, when the very first stars and galaxies formed. With funding from the Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing and SERI as part of the SKACH consortium, the researchers have developed a leading-edge hydrodynamics code called SPH-EXA that is capable of simulating the behavior of fluids and plasmas on supercomputers, important because the universe consists mostly of gases and plasmas. Now, with the node hours awarded on Europe’s largest supercomputer, the code will create a simulation to investigate the formation of protostellar cores, the progenitors of stars like our own Sun. “Understanding this will help us to know the distribution of masses of stars which has important implications for the observable properties of galaxies. The other thing we are hoping to do with this project is study mixing, that tries to uncover why there is an apparent homogeneity in stellar clusters which is not really well understood,” explained Rubén Cabezón, astrophysicist and scientific programmer at the Center for Scientific Computing (sciCORE) at the University of Basel, part of the SKACH team and principal investigator in SPH-EXA. “This is equivalent to the largest turbulence simulation that has been ever done but for the first time we are including self-gravity, which is what we need for the stellar cores to collapse, and which is a major challenge, because it requires a lot of computational power to actually do the calculations with gravity,” he continued. Another important element of the project is testing the code itself. Florina Ciorba is a Professor of High-Performance Computing at the University of Basel, also part of the SKACH team and principal investigator in SPH-EXA. “I’ve dreamt of having access to such a huge machine allocation for an application and my objective is to see how the simulation behaves as a software code on that machine. I'm interested if there are any bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the way the simulation uses the system,” Ciorba explained. “Certain phenomena don't show at small scale but they will appear and be visible at large scale and I want to understand what happens in the time that we predicted the simulation will take.” During its operation, the SKAO will collect unprecedented amounts of data, requiring the world’s fastest supercomputers to process this in near real time. This simulation experiment is helping to drive the development of codes, enhanced by High-Performance Computing and machine learning techniques, to handle these large data streams. “With this code and the resolution that we can achieve thanks to the LUMI-G allocation, we can model interstellar turbulence using particle-based fluid dynamics, which has always been problematic in the past, and this is instrumental to be able to follow the formation of stars,” added Lucio Mayer, Head of the Institute for Computational Science at the University of Zurich also part of the SKACH team and principal investigator in SPH-EXA. Those closely involved with the project, including Ralf Klessen, professor for theoretical astrophysics at Heidelberg University, a pioneer in computational astrophysics, believe its multi-disciplinary nature is a real strength. “Progress at the very forefront of science relies on bringing together expertise in many different research fields. In our case, the envisioned simulations and their adequate interpretation depend on input from computer science, applied mathematics and data analysis, as well as theoretical astrophysics and observational astronomy. This combination opens new pathways towards better understanding how star and star clusters form in the turbulent multi-phase interstellar medium in galaxies such as our Milky Way.” Rubén Cabezón says the entire SPH-EXA team was ecstatic when they learned about the LUMI-G allocation, “There is so much science that can come from this, not only on astrophysics and cosmology, but also in computer science and this is what makes it so interesting. It's going to be a very, very exciting time.” Developed for the EuroHPC Extreme Scale Allocation Call the LUMI-G allocation was awarded for the project: “TGSF: The Role of Turbulence and Gravity in Star Formation, Unveiling the sonic scale with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics". The SKACH SPH-EXA team behind the proposal is: Project management: Florina Ciorba – Co-PI, Computer Science, High-Performance Computing, Load Balancing Specialist Software development, Simulations & Data analysis: Visualization & Data analysis: Data management & Transfer, CI/CD & Testing: Partners: Domingo García-Senz – Computational Astrophysics, SPH specialist
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| E. Rembelska |
| Email Author |
| Department of Astrophysics |
| 2024-01-16, News |
Bring colour into the winter: The Food Hub at Irchel |
| Do you want to purchase sustainably produced fruits, vegetables and much more directly at your place of study or work? The Food Hub at Campus Irchel makes it possible. It is offered by the Sustainability Task Force of the UZH Department of Geography. he MNF supports it with a "Make Irchel More Sustainable!" grant. |
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| Read the full article in the GIUZ Blog! (in German only) |
| Sustainability Task Force, Department of Geography |
| Email Author |
| 2024-02-06, News |
Sense of belonging in the working environment |
| Lecture and Panel Discussion "Sense of belonging in the working environment: How diversity research can be transferred into good practice at UZH" (21 March 2024 ) |
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| Research of the UZH Center for Leadership in the Future of Work shows how people wish to feel at work. How can this be transferred into good practice in the academic everyday life of a research group? How can people in a leadership role interact with their team members in order to live diversity and to really create an inclusive atmosphere? This network event would like to show significant UZH diversity research expertise on one side – and the successful transfer/implementation in our own organization on the other. On Thursday, 21 March 2024 starting at 16.00 in RAA-G-01 («small aula») |
| Abteilung Gleichstellung und Diversität |
| Email Author |
| https://www.gleichstellung.uzh.ch/de/ueber_uns/grundlagen/diversity/netzwerk/20240321.html |
| 2024-02-09, Event |
Network Evening in the Irchel Bar |
| On the occasion of this year's "International Day of Women and Girls in Science", the Faculty's Gender Equality Committee and the Faculty's 2024 Verena Meyer guest professor Prof. Dr. Leigh Johnson invite all students, PhDs, PostDocs, researchers, lecturers, staff and professors of the Faculty for a networking evening. |
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| Sara Petchey |
| Email Author |
| https://www.mnf.uzh.ch/de/fakultaet/gleichstellung/kampagne.html |
| 2024-02-11, Event |
Can Large Language Models Help Us Combat Online Misinformation? |
| As the quantity of misinformation online eclipses the capacity fact-checkers, LLMs may hold the promise of verifying content automatically. The study investigates into the performance of LLMs in fact-checking tasks. |
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| The research paper "The Perils & Promises of Fact-checking with Large Language Models" by Dorian Quelle and Alexandre Bovet evaluates the use of GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 for fact-checking. With the proliferation of misinformation, fact-checking has become a crucial but resource-intensive task. The study investigates whether LLMs can assist in this endeavor by autonomously verifying claims, retrieving relevant context via Google, and explaining their decision-making process. The article compares the performance of GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 across two data-sets, under conditions with and without additional contextual information. Key findings reveal that GPT-4 generally outperforms GPT-3.5 in accuracy, particularly when additional context is provided. However, the accuracy significantly varies based on the language of the claim and the nature of the veracity. The study found that translating non-English claims into English before processing them through the models often resulted in better performance, highlighting language as a critical factor in the effectiveness of LLM-based fact-checking. The inclusion of contextual data notably improves the models' accuracy, suggesting the importance of external evidence in the verification process. Despite these promising results, the research underscores the inconsistency in the models' accuracy and the challenges associated with ambiguous verdicts. It suggests that while LLMs can support fact-checking processes, they are not infallible and should be used with caution. The paper advocates for further research to understand the conditions under which LLMs succeed or fail in fact-checking tasks. Moreover, it emphasizes the potential of LLMs to enhance the efficiency of human fact-checkers by providing preliminary assessments and rationales, thereby facilitating a more informed and quicker verification process. In conclusion, this study offers insights into the capabilities and limitations of Large Language Models in the context of fact-checking. It highlights the importance of contextual information and the challenge of language dependence in improving the accuracy of these models. For those interested in exploring this research further, the full study can be accessed here. |
| Dorian Quelle |
| Email Author |
| 2024-02-23, Sci. Publication |
Eons in a Blink: Processes in proteins unchanged for a billion years |
| For around four billion years, life on Earth has been developing in a fascinating evolutionary process. But how do proteins, the molecular machines in cells, change over this incredibly long period of time? In a groundbreaking study, researchers at the University of Zurich have unraveled the influence of a billion years of evolution on the pace of these molecular machines. |
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| For around four billion years, life on Earth has been developing in a fascinating evolutionary process. But how do proteins, the molecular machines in cells, change over this incredibly long period of time? In a groundbreaking study, researchers at the University of Zurich have unraveled the influence of a billion years of evolution on the pace of these molecular machines. The results, published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide a unique look at the influence of evolution on the most elementary building blocks of life. Over the course of billions of years, life on Earth has thrived and adapted, evolving to occupy every conceivable niche on our planet. The diversity of life that has emerged through evolution goes beyond what the naked eye can observe, such as different skull shapes and bone sizes, and beyond discernible variations in metabolism and sensory organs. Molecular characteristics change, too, notably seen in the structural alterations of proteins, the smallest building blocks of life - molecular machines inside cells. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) have gained a fascinating insight into the effects that hundreds of millions of years have on these molecular machines. How much do proteins change over an incomprehensibly long period of time? The results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), shed light on the effects of evolution over a period of one billion years. "Proteins are molecular machines that fulfill essential tasks in the cells of all living organisms. Proteins are dynamic, they constantly change their shape," says biochemist Philipp Heckmeier, who initiated and led the project. "Do the dynamics, the pace of the machines in human proteins function just as quickly as in similar mouse, fish or coral proteins, i.e. in life forms whose evolutionary divergence is hundreds of millions of years?"
Whether human, mouse, chicken, fish, mussel or coral - the basic processes in an oncologically relevant protein family are almost identical To find this out, the researchers investigated a protein family that is essential for the survival of cells and is at the center of current cancer research, the BCL-2 family. Using a molecular switch that they were able to turn on with laser light, they "destabilized" ten closely related proteins. This causes the protein to briefly rearrange - a response to "being knocked out of step". The researchers in the laboratory of Professor Peter Hamm (UZH) were able to resolve this response over time using infrared spectroscopy. "For all the proteins studied, the response begins in the nanosecond range. One nanosecond corresponds to one billionth of a second, i.e. 0.000 000 001 seconds - an almost unimaginably short period of time," says Heckmeier. In their experiment with ten proteins from different animal species, the researchers found that they all leave a species-specific but very similar "footprint" when they are brought out of step. "We found the same footprint for all the proteins we examined, regardless of whether the protein came from a human, a mouse, a chicken, a zebrafish, a mussel or a coral. Even though there are hundreds of millions of years of evolution between these species. This is remarkable!", says the researcher.
Artificial intelligence predicts almost identical protein structures Using artificial intelligence (Google's AlphaFold), the scientists were able to predict that not only the dynamics of the proteins are highly conserved, but also their structure. Heckmeier suspects: "The studied protein is particularly conserved because it is a molecule that is essential for the survival of tissue-forming animals. If its structure, timing or function changes just a little, the living organism can no longer maintain tissue and dies." Further insights gained by researchers suggest that the degree of conservation for a process is linked to how strongly it is coupled to the function of the protein. The scientists found that a functionally less important process can drift and slow down over time without affecting the function of the protein. The process was presumably exposed to a lower selective pressure in the past. The research results shed new light on the time scales in which life on Earth changes. "Here we observe the effect of a billion years on processes that take place in a billionth of a second. We are building a bridge between the shortest timescales of life to the longest. Unimaginably many generations of living beings must have passed on the same information over and over again so that protein pace has been conserved in an unchanging form. Over a billion years."
Literature: P.J. Heckmeier et al.: A billion years of evolution manifest in nanosecond protein dynamics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Feb 2024. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2318743121 |
| Philipp J. Heckmeier (Postdoctoral Researcher at Hamm Group) |
| Email Author |
| 2024-02-27, Sci. Publication |
Public lecture by Leigh Johnson our Verena Meyer Visiting Professor |
| Public lecture: Digging in the drylands: Valuing labor and landform in nature-based solutions Tuesday, 19 March 2024, 16.00-17.00 Room Y25-H-38 Irchel |
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| SP |
| Email Author |
| 2024-03-17, Event |
Birds use valleys and passes to cross the Alps |
| A team from GIUZ and the Swiss Ornithological Institute studied how migratory birds cross the Swiss Alps for the first time using year-round radar measurements: migration intensities, flight altitudes, speeds and directions were monitored. It turned out that migratory birds use the Alpine valleys and adjacent passes as passages. |
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| Every autumn, more than two billion migratory birds leave their breeding grounds in Europe. On their journey south, the Alps represent a particular barrier. While many birds widely circumvent the Alps, others choose the direct route to reach the wintering grounds south of the Sahara more quickly. Until recently, it was not exactly known how many birds cross the Alps and how they do so. Visual observations suggest that migratory birds fly primarily along Alpine valleys to avoid crosswinds and larger climbs. However, most birds migrate at night, making migration difficult to observe. Traditionally, researchers count the silhouettes of passing birds against the full moon, a method that is both time-consuming and time-limited. Efficient and accurate measurement with modern radar systems Highly specialised radar systems help researchers measure bird migration. They record birds up to 1,500 metres above the ground and provide precise numbers on bird migration. The team led by first author Simon Hirschhofer used two such scanners in the Swiss Inn- and Urseren Valley, and another scanner in the northern foothills of the Alps near Sempach. The results of the study confirm that migratory birds orientate themselves on the local topography of the valleys when crossing the Alps. The birds use valleys and adjacent mountain passes as passages through the Alps. Occasionally, this can locally lead to enormous migration peaks, where more than 20,000 birds pass by a valley section in an hour. The results of the study have important implications for the protection of migratory birds in the Swiss Alps. Valleys and mountain passes are also potential locations for wind power plants. Collisions with wind turbines already pose a danger to migratory birds. "Radar technology should be used to monitor the intensity of migration locally," suggests Simon Hirschhofer. "At times when many birds are travelling, the turbines could be temporarily shut down. Or such locations could generally be avoided for wind energy generation." This would allow thousands of birds to travel safely from their winter quarters to their summer quarters and back. Simon Hirschhofer, Felix Liechti, Peter Ranacher, Robert Weibel, Baptiste Schmid: High-intensity bird migration along Alpine valleys calls for protective measures against anthropogenically induced avian mortality; Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation 2024, https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.377 |
| Simon Hirschhofer |
| Email Author |
| 2024-03-21, Sci. Publication |
Invasive species impacts transcend ecosystem boundaries |
| Invasive species have profound impacts on biodiversity. A study led by UZH researchers reveals the impacts of invasive species commonly transcend major ecosystem boundaries, such as the aquatic-terrestrial interface, influencing biodiversity across larger spatial extents than previously recognized. |
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| Invasive species are pervasive worldwide, reaching staggering numbers and having dramatic impacts on the ecosystems they invade. New research from the University of Zurich and Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, sheds light on the broader spatial dimension of the ecological influence of invasive species, revealing that their effects often extend beyond the boundaries of invaded ecosystems. Original publication: Peller, T. & Altermatt, F. (2024) Invasive species drive cross-ecosystem effects worldwide, Nature Ecology & Evolution, DOI:  |
| Tianna Peller and Florian Altermatt |
| Email Author |
| Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
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| 2024-04-04, Sci. Publication |
SHiP experiment approved |
| Just over ten years after its initial proposal, the SHiP experiment has been approved by the CERN management to start data taking in the next decade! The SHiP experiment is designed to search for extremely weakly interacting particles by using an incredibly intense beam of protons available at the LHC. |
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| A new experiment SHiP has just been given the green light by CERN to proceed. The experiment is designed to search for so-called "hidden particles", named as such because they barely interact with ordinary matter. An example of this is the search for a heavy neutrino, which is a kind of neutral electron that could solve some of the pressing open questions such as to what is the mysterious material Dark Matter. The search for hidden particles complements the existing experiments at CERN, which instead look for signs of heavy new particles (such as what we do at the LHCb experiment here in UZH). The experiment was co-founded by Prof. Nicola Serra and was supported by an SNF-Starting grant in the design phase, where Martina Ferrillo and Dr. Iaroslava Bezshyiko made vital contributions. The approval of the CERN management moves the experiment into the finalization of the design and construction phase – what an exciting time to be part of the experiment! The group here at UZH has been hugely involved in SHiP since its inception, where the first collaboration meeting took place here in Zurich in 2013. The group also led vital studies for the experiment design that was submitted to CERN for approval. Prof. Serra now has his work cut out as physics coordinator of the experiment - this is where the real work begins!
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| Katharina Müller |
| Email Author |
| 2024-04-16, News |
