Empa Colloquia, Seminars & Events

MedTech Day 2015: Im medizinischen Bereich kommen häufig Polymere und Hydrogele zum Einsatz. Luciano Boesel nutzt diese Fasern in Wundverbänden, um beispielsweise Medikamente abzugeben oder den Heilungsprozess zu überwachen.

MedTech Day 2015: Giuseppino Fortunato stellt Membranen aus Nanofasern mit der Methode des Elektrospinnens her. Die Fasern werden beispielsweise für Wundverbände gebraucht, um kontrolliert Medikamente abzugeben.

MedTech Day 2015: In der experimentellen Biomechanik geht es darum, Materialien etwa für Implantate durch Bruch- und Ermüdungstests zu charakterisieren. Aber auch Computersimulationen und andere rechnerische Methoden kommen zum Einsatz, wie Bernhard Weisse zeigt.

MedTech Day 2015: Die Empa entwickelt verschiedene Beschichtungen für medizinische Anwendungen. Kerstin Thorwarth zeigt, wie Bandscheibeinimplantate aus Polyetheretherketon (PEEK) mit Titan beschichtet werden, damit Knochen besser am Implantat anwachsen können.

MedTech Day 2015: Materialien können auf unterschiedliche Weise beschichtet werden. So etwa durch das chemische Verfahren der Plasmapolymerisation oder durch das physikalische Abtragen, dem Sputtering-Verfahren. Martin Amberg zeigt, wie diese Methoden auch miteinander kombiniert werden können.

MedTech Day 2015: Im Röntgenzentrum der Empa werden beispielsweise Mikrosysteme, Fasern oder Knochen mittels Röntgenanalytik untersucht. Antonia Neels zeigt, wie nicht nur Materialien, sondern auch einzelne Materialkomponenten analysiert werden können.

MedTech Day 2015: Empa-Forscherinnen untersuchen, wie kleinste Partikel mit menschlichen Zellen und biologischen Barrieren, etwa die Plazenta, wechselwirken. Cordula Hirsch zeigt, wie Erkenntnisse von der Forschung in Therapie und Diagnostik übertragen werden können.

MedTech Day 2015: Künstliche Gelenke müssen biokompatibel verträglich sein. Empa-Forscherinnen und -Forscher um Katharina Maniura untersuchen, wie Zellen und Gewebe auf ein Implantat reagieren.

MedTech Day 2015: Empa scientists analyze bacterial biofilms that adhere to different material surfaces, e.g. on implants and medical devices such as endoscopes. Qun Ren and her team have developed a technique for purging medical devices from bacteria in order to make it safe to reuse them.

In his «Promotion Lecture» Oliver Gröning talks about materials at the mesoscopic scale – materials between the size of a molecule and a few micrometers. Modifications at this level can cause significant differences in the materials' physical properties. Fullerenes are paradigmatic structures to illustrate this.

Prof. Gottfried Schatz from the University of Basel talks about what science has given him, what he considers to be important, and what he would do differently if he could start his successful research career all over again. Most of Europe's universities still have a long way to go in adopting attractive and yet selective career structures for young scientists.

The ice loss in Greenland shows acceleration during the last decade. WSL director Konrad Steffen explains how scientists gained new insight using ground penetrating radar and a video system during the melt peak in August 2007-2010. Water penetrates to great depth through moulins and cracks, lubricating the bottom of the ice sheet.

The energetics of nanomaterials are typically dominated by (excess) surface and/or interface energy contributions. In his talk, Dr. Lars Jeurgens from Empa, addresses recent advances in the thermodynamic description of reactions and phase transformations in nanomaterials.

3D-micropatterning of surfaces signifies a recent paradigm change for control of surface functionalities: the exploitation of cleverly designed surface protrusions at the micron scale. In his talk Prof. Eduard Arzt from the Leibniz Institute for New Materials / Saarland University, Saarbrücken, summarizes recent developments in producing bio-inspired micropatterned polymer surfaces.

Energy efficiency is a key element of many energy and environmental policies. Despite autonomous and forced improvements in energy efficiency, however, in most countries overall energy consumption has not decreased. Reinhard Madlener from RWTH Aachen explains how «rebound effects» emerge and influence further development.

The rational design of new functional materials is the dream of every materials scientist. Prof. Claudia Felser explains in her talk, why Heusler compounds are an important class of materials with potential for applications in electronic devices and green energy.

Liquid-phase routes to inorganic functional materials in organic solvents are a well-established and flexible alternative to aqueous methods. In his talk, Prof. Markus Niederberger from ETH Zurich will give an overview of nonaqueous synthesis routes to various inorganic materials such as metal oxides, metal sulfides and metal phosphates.

Interest in graphene appears endless at the moment, with most interest related to the «simple» Dirac particle like electronic structure. On the surface this simplicity would appear to make investigations into the electronic structure less than exciting. Andrew Walter explains how on the contrary the simple nature of the underlying electronic structure allows detailed analysis of the quasi-particle, hybridization and substrate interaction features observed in photoemission spectroscopy.

The global carbon cycle has become an important research topic in Earth System science. In order to understand and predict and potentially manage its behavior in response to human influences and climate change, a global scale observing system for carbon is needed. Prof. Martin Heimann talks about the scientific challenge of bringing the different data streams together in a consistent way.

Modern computational methods are proving to be invaluable in the first-principles design of new materials with specific targeted functionalities. Prof Nicola Spaldin illustrates their utility with two examples from the field of multiferroics: First, the design of new materials for electric-field control of magnetism, and second, testing extensions to the standard model by searching for the electric dipole moment of the electron.

Numerous structures have been developed in electrical engineering to help the radiation of electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies. In this presentation, Olivier Martin Professor at EPFL describes the functioning principles of plasmonic antennas and their fabrication.

Low-dimensional assemblies, where order and organization follow supramolecular principles, have assumed remarkable importance due to their outstanding physical and/or chemical properties. An easy method to produce tailored functional materials combines self-assembly and Langmuir-Blodgett assembly. In this talk Petra Rudolf illustrates how this new approach allows the deposition of graphene on a variety of substrates.

The protection of metals and alloys against corrosion is a major issue in many respects including, but not limited to, scientific and technical aspects. In his lecture Philippe Marcus shows how a surface science approach contributes to provide a detailed understanding of corrosion at the nanoscale. The emphasis will be placed on the growth, structure and corrosion protection properties of ultrathin oxide layers formed on metals and alloys in aqueous solution.

Materials like Bi-Sb alloys, Bi2Se3 or Bi2Te3 have been known and studied for decades, mostly for their interesting thermoelectrical properties. They are insulators with relatively small band gaps, which are opened by the spin-orbit interaction. Recently, it was recognized that the topology of the electronic states separated by this gap is non-trivial. Jürg Osterwalder gives an introduction to the new aspects of these materials.

The field of printed electronics or organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) has been identified by both industry and academia as an interesting area to pave the way towards new applications in electronics such as flexible displays or low cost RFID tags. In his talk, Marcel Kastler discusses the latest material generations for the fabrication of display backplanes.

Transport emissions are on the increase - more than in any other industrial sector. In his talk, Prof Sausen presents QUANTIFY, a project in which scientists studied and quantified the impact of transport on the composition of the atmosphere, on clouds and on climate.

Spin is a fundamental quantity in quantum mechanics. Andreas J. Heinrich from IBM Research, Almaden, shows how a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) can be used to study the dynamic evolution of individual spin systems on surfaces on time scales ranging from pico- to nanoseconds.

Biomimetics wants to enhance technology with the introduction of ideas derived from biology. But there is no proof that the technical systems work in the same way as the biological ones. Tiny innovations such as Gecko adhesive or Velcro are not going to lead to a revolution. Prof Julian Vincent from University of Bath explains, why a wider vision is needed.

In seiner Antrittsvorlesung als Professor für Photonik an der ETH Zürich spricht Empa-Direktor Gian-Luca Bona über die Möglichkeiten der Datenübertragung in optischen Netzwerken und über die physikalischen Probleme bei Baukomponenten und -systemen, wenn diese nur noch wenige Nanometer gross sind.

Third generation synchrotrons provide an average X-ray brightness 109 times that of a laboratory source, making trivial many experiments which were formerly impossible. But standard short-wavelength synchrotron light is also incoherent and limited. Prof. Bruce D. Patterson from PSI presents the operating principle for a national XFEL facility, the SwissFEL.

In the last decade there has been an impressive growth in research and development in the field of sensor technology. Danilo De Rossi discusses the sensing properties of redundant piezioresistive polymer arrays and the actuation properties of dielectric elastomers for new physical sensors and actuators.

«Science» can be defined by what scientists do. «Scientific» can be defined by what philosophers think what scientists do. How do the two compare? Do philosophers of science understand how science proceeds? Or do they miss certain dimensions of the greatest adventure of mankind? In his talk Ernst Peter Fischer from the University of Konstanz wants to convince the audience that it is true that science works but without us understanding why.

Plastics are older than humanity. Still, most plastics inventions were made only in the past 200 years, scientific success happened less than 100 years ago, and it is only 60 years ago that the conversion of our world into a plastics universe has assumed dramatic speed. In his talk Ulrich W. Suter from ETH Zurich explains, how and why plastics have penetrated our daily life, what it means and what we can expect for the immediate future.

The application of metallurgy in archaeology and the cultural heritage has a long history going back to the 18th century. In contrast, application of metallurgy in the study of the industrial heritage has been recent and hesitant. Peter Northover from Oxford University presents results from microanalysis, metallography and mechanical testing and shows how engineers dealt with the variable qualities of the materials they used, and how the slow development of new technology such making steel in bulk might have hindered industrial development.

Ob wir in Zukunft unsere Probleme bei der Energieversorgung und der CO2-bedingten Klimaveränderung in den Griff bekommen, hängt davon ab, wie Materialien weiterentwickelt werden. Louis Schlapbach erläutert in seiner Abschiedsvorlesung, wie letztlich alle von den Materialwissenschaften profitieren können.

«The future is flexible»: This also means that future electronics is expected to be flexible, so that devices can easily be rolled or bent. In his talk Siegfrid Bauer from the University of Linz will outline how the ingenious combination of energy and entropy elasticity leads to new functionalities. Concepts for stretchable piezoelec-trics, batteries, optical waveguides and applications of such systems will be used to illustrate in detail the numerous possibilities for materials research in conformable electronics.

Individual mobility is closely linked to the welfare of society. Not surprisingly, the number of automobiles has been increasing and is likely to double in the next twenty years. Clearly, this development creates many benefits, but also many problems such as air pollution, traffic fatalities, increased energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission. Lino Guzzella (ETH Zurich) prioritizes the relevance of these problems and pre-sents some of the most likely technological solutions.

The detection and quantitative analysis of single biomolecules, smallest analyte quantities and the hunt for low abundant proteins at the single cell level, require new sensitive and efficient techniques. Prof. Dr. Dario Anselmetti (University Bielefeld) talks about novel biophysical measurement concepts that allow to image, measure, analyze, steer, and manipulate individual biomolecules and cells.

Extreme fluctuations or events are often associated with power law statistics. In his speech, Prof. Dr. Didier Sornette (ETH Zürich), documents that in several systems is life beyond power law tails: Power laws can be supersedes by "kings" monster events. These events reveal hidden mechanisms that are only transiently active and that amplify the normal power law fluctuations.

Particle physicist Felicitas Pauss is investigating the basic building blocks which make up matter, and their mutual interactions. Currently she is preparing to carry out experiments using the new LHC accelerator at CERN. The ETH Professor is attempting to observe and understand, on a small scale, the processes which occurred during the Big Bang and in doing so find out how matter is able to gain mass.

Buildings account for more than one third of the world's primary energy demand, and a large part of resource use. There is, however, enormous potential to save energy and operate buildings without producing CO2. How can we manage our existing building stock to dramatically reduce energy and resource use, in time and at scale? Peter Richner moderates a panel discussion within CCES/AGS Annual Meeting 2009. His guests are: Hansjürg Leibundgut (ETH Zurich), Ryozo Ooka (University of Tokyo), Leon Glicksman (MIT), Carl-Eric Hagentoft (Chalmers University of Technology)