D-BAUG - Departement Bau, Umwelt und Geomatik - ETH Zürich

MSc Excellence Scholarships
Even in this current economic crisis, there are too few engineers.
Certain circles maintain that Switzerland is increasingly being
supplanted with industrial and residential areas. Is engineering
a career for the future?
Absolutely! Take the terminal train station in Zurich, for in-
Konrad Basler
Konrad Basler was born in 1929 in Thalheim on the river
Thur. When he finished his apprenticeship as a carpenter,
he studied at the Technical College in Winterthur
and completed his engineering studies at ETH Zurich in
1954. His concluded his doctoral studies at Lehigh University
in Bethlehem (USA) in 1959. From 1960, he worked
as a self-employed advisory engineer in Egg and since
1969 has been a shareholder in Basler & Hofmann Engineering
and Planning Ltd. From 1977 to 1991, he represented
the SVP in the National Assembly where his main
political focus was on energy, the environment and finance.
In the eighties Mr. Basler was a member of the
Swiss Federal School Board (now called the ETH Board;
www.ethrat.ch).Today the Basler & Hofmann group has
about 500 employees working on construction, energy,
environment, mobility and security. The company has
numerous offices throughout Switzerland and branches
in Germany, Singapore, India and Slovakia.
8 ▪ D-BAUG Annual Report 2009
stance. We are currently constructing a cross-over line under
the main station. The denser the population, the greater the
challenges. In the pioneering days, workers would have done
it in no time with shovels and picks. Today it’s a two-billion
franc project engaging the best engineers. Switzerland will always
need a high level of engineering. This country is still in
the making!
“A future of provenance”
Innovation and promoting young scientists at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Organised jointly by the ETH Zurich Foundation and Professors Peter Marti and Lorenz Hurni, the partners of the
Excellence Scholarship Programmes (excellence scholarships for Master’s students) were, on 20 October 2009, invited
to meet the young talents they support at an event held in the D-BAUG experimental hall. Needless to say, this was an
ideal opportunity to thank the funders for generously supporting our young talents and to present some current research
work to our guests.
This event also marked a change in office when Professor Marti, the former head of department, officially handed over
duties to his colleague, Professor Lorenz Hurni. In office since August 2009, Prof. Hurni maximized the occasion by bringing
our guests up to date on recent events within the department.
Young talents at D-BAUG: our five scholarship holders
Since the launching of the “Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme” at ETH Zurich, six talented Master’s students
at D-BAUG have each been awarded a scholarship. Five scholarship holders attended the ‘talents meet funders’
event and introduced themselves to the event participants. These young scientists spoke individually about what this
scholarship has helped them to achieve and how they foresee their future. Naturally, they also thanked the partners for
their kind support.The students’light-hearted, informal presentation went down well and gave this event its rather special
tone.
Whether our young, innovative scientists take up employment in research, seeking to resolve tomorrow’s problems, or
in a company, both have a common denominator: they strive towards progress and effectiveness by engaging in joint
collaborative efforts.
Nathalie Fontana
ETH Zurich Foundation
The Excellence Scholarship Fund of the ETH Zurich Foundation
In 2007, the ETH Executive Board initiated the scholarship
programme. Its aim is to recruit excellent students
from at home and abroad for Master’s studies and to
educate talented young scientists for the industry. Financial
contributions are made by private donors. The
ETH Zurich Foundation wants to establish partnerships
with enterprises and foundations and to identify private
sponsors. Scholarship applicants must hold an excellent
record in their Bachelor’s studies and submit a
sound project outline for a research project. Currently, 30
scholarships are awarded, but it is intended to raise this
number to 50 scholarships a year.