Cheers to 50 articles! 500 more perhaps?

So the Energy Blog @ETH just turned 50 articles old! Writing for the win! To think that an idea that was sparked by an unexpected encounter of students Flo, Yael, Evan & Alejandro, in their early PhD years while at ETH Zurich, what a feat! Through the support of the ETH Energy Science Centre (ESC), the Energy Blog @ETH team, consisting mostly of PhD students, along with professors and ESC staff, has worked to create a space where anyone working in energy at ETH Zurich can showcase their research or give informed opinions on pertinent energy topics of our time.

In this article, we at the Energy Blog @ETH team want to give you a glimpse “behind the curtain” into the inner workings of our team! What is the #ETHEnergyBlog about? And how can you be part of this budding team?

Epiphanies are so underrated

We would like to imagine that our founders were standing at the ETH Polyterrasse on an early spring day, staring out into Zurich’s city oblivion when the idea hit them, as we are sure great ideas hit Einstein during his days at UZH — corny much? But no, the blog was inspired by Prof. Meredith Fowlie’s call to action during a PhD seminar they were attending. As Evan puts it, Meredith argued that “young researchers should have a voice in the general power dynamics and academia.”

Although they were in their early PhD days, the energy enthusiasts also wanted to “build a community of energy PhD students at ETH, something that ties them together and allows students to engage in thought provoking debates” on all things Energy. This call to action and desire to create a space for students to synthesise their work to a broader audience led to the development of the Energy Blog @ETH. Fast-forward to today and boom…

So what is the Energy Blog @ETH about?

“Even after 2 years, I still get e-mails from experts in my field and people who are interested

 in my work aiming to connect & discuss my research based on the blog post I wrote” –
Cristina Dominguez

The Energy Blog @ETH is a platform for ETH researchers and students to channel insights from their research by engaging with the public, industry, policy and other researchers. As the name suggests, it is all about one of the most intensely debated topics of our generation: energy. From climate and sustainability to affordability and security, energy affects many layers of society and politics.

We post two types of blog articles: short highlights of the most recent research and opinion pieces on current public debates. Our authors range from master’s & PhD students, to Postdocs and Professors. We also include blog post collaborations with authors from outside ETH Zurich. Our mission is to share knowledge and spark discussions from a multi-disciplinary perspective.