Empa Colloquia, Seminars & Events

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.