Annual Report 2024

Small quantities, big effect: micropollut­ants in wastewater are increasingly recog­nised as environmental problems. Eawag researchers played a key role in developing a globally pioneering strategy to ensure wastewater treatment plants are fit to deal with these residues as well.

Will there still be a need for human researchers when automation enters the laboratory? Battery researcher Corsin Battaglia and materials scientist Johann Michler from Empa believe that it  will be a case of working together, not against each other.

In 2024, PSI reported two breakthroughs  in connection with microchips, both on  a similar scale. Single­digit nanometre ranges can now be achieved in semicon­ductor production with photolithography and when analysing microchips – record levels of precision!

Gabriela Hug, Professor of Electric Power Transmission and Chair of the Energy Science Center at ETH Zurich, is convinced that the transformation to clean energy can succeed. However, it will take a little pioneering spirit and intelligent control of the power grids.

Language models are often not much more than toys; we are fascinated  by their abilities, but do they really bring any benefit? A new model from EPFL illustrates the potential of chatbots with medical knowledge to close a disastrous information gap in Africa.

At the Illgraben debris­flow observa­tion station, WSL researchers are de­veloping early warning systems that combine seismology and artificial in­telligence. A trip to the perhaps most hostile place in Switzerland.