MTEC News Archive

ETH Zurich’s new Professor for Sustainability Economics, Moritz Drupp, and a group of fellow researchers won a Frontiers Planet Prize for proposing a simplified approach for how societies can value scarce ecosystems.

The D-MTEC community once again took on the Zurich Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K Race with unwavering enthusiasm. On Sunday, 13 April, an impressive 71 members of the department lined up with 19,800 fellow runners, more than doubling last year’s turnout of 30 runners.

MTEC Day 2025 marked the graduation and awards ceremony for the MSc MTEC and MAS MTEC programmes. The event featured a record-breaking GPA, awards for brilliant Master's theses, engaging speeches, and an apéro that almost would not end.

Many ideas never leave the campus. Yet the world needs that knowledge to improve how organisations, communities, and industries operate. As the Director of the Humanitarian Operations and Supply Chain Management (HumOSCM) Lab, Dr Bublu Thakur-Weigold applies research to where it matters most. We spoke with her about how she makes it work.

New research reveals surprising truths about productivity in European agriculture – and why understanding them matters for resilience and future growth.

Shaping a more inclusive future in science is no easy thing – but that doesn’t make it less important. To spark conversations and celebrate International Women’s Day, several female associations and diversity groups at ETH hosted a panel where women in science shared their perspectives.

D-​MTEC wishes you happy holidays and a fantastic start to the new year! 2024 has been another exciting year in our community. Lean back and enjoy this video​collage with some highlights from last year. We are back on 6 January 2025.

The Entrepreneurial Leadership Seminar (ELS) offers MSc MTEC and MAS MTEC students a hands-on, collaborative experience. They work with project leaders and senior executives to tackle an organisation's real-world challenges. In 2024, they went to UBS to explore the transformative potential of AI in banking.

For two decades, Professor Frank Schweitzer explored complex social and economic systems at D-MTEC. Before retiring in early 2025, he reflects on what complexity research offers academia, organisations, and students – why understanding structural dynamics and resilience matters. Sebastian Wagner-Vierhaus interviewed him shortly after his farewell lecture.

A new theory challenges how firms manage AI. Gudela Grote and colleagues published the paper in the Academy of Management Review. They argue that developers, users, and managers must share control and accountability through dialogue, negotiation, and careful design. The result could reshape how we trust AI.