The "MiFAS - Microstructured Fiber Surfaces" project has won a at the Swiss Technology Awards presentation and a special prize in the category "Inventing the future", donated by the cantons of St Gall and Thurgau. A condition of the award is that the project be exhibited at the Hanover Trade Fair from April 11th to 15th 2005.

Even though Switzerland plays a leading role in combating railway noise emissions, there still remains much to be done in this country. On this point at least, all those attending the Empa Science Apéro were in agreement, from greenhorn researchers to scientific old foxes!

The Royal Military College of Canada has bestowed an honorary doctorate on the Empa’s Deputy Director, Prof. Urs Meier, the first such award to an Empa staff member for 38 years. In his speech of laudation Prof. John Scott Cowan, the Rector of the Royal Military College of Canada, described Urs Meier, a Professor of many year’s standing at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, as “a tireless friend of Canadian civil engineering” and as “the spiritual force behind Canada’s success in the field of carbon-fiber reinforced structures”. The award ceremony, during which Prof. Meier was presented with his doctoral mortar board, took place on November 4th in Kingston, Ontario. The full text of Prof. Cowan’s laudation in English and French follows.

For the first time ever, Europe’s leading researchers in the field of mesenchymal stem cells met at the Empa in St. Gall from the 7^th to 9^th November. These hitherto neglected cells could soon lead to decisive changes in the treatment of arthritic hip-joints and complicated breaks in bones.

Fuel cells convert chemical energy directly into electric current and heat. They find applications ranging in scale from battery-substitutes in vehicles, laptop computers and mobile telephones via energy supply systems in single and multiple-unit housing, all the way to use in power stations. On October 31st  at the Empa Academy, experts and laymen alike were afforded the opportunity to discuss the potential offered by fuel cells, and prospects of them becoming an established technology through the development of innovative ideas and applications in niche markets.

For the first time ever an experiment is being conducted to investigate how a typical Swiss house behaves during an earthquake. Powerful oscillation-generators, so called Empa-Shakers, will create movement in the building structure similar to those induced by earthquakes.

Four apprentice physics laboratory technicians from Empa’s Electronics and Metrology Laboratory – Beat Müller, Michael Stiefel, Lukas Rotach and Sven Toggweiler – have won a very creditable second prize in the Youth Encouragement Awards presented by the Haba Company. The four young men won the prize for their project on Kirlian photography.

From September 5th to 7th 2005 an international conference on perovskites was held at the Empa in Duebendorf, with 130 renowned researchers from 18 nations taking part. They were all there, said one attendee, all the world’s experts on perovskites. To celebrate its jubilee, Empa also presented its «125 years of Empa Young Scientist Award».

Traffic overload on the Gotthard tunnel route, jams due to accidents, bumper-to-bumper vehicles at road works – the consequences of our ever increasing mobility are hard to escape. But what can we do to counter its effects? Answers to this question were provided at a Science Apèro held, as usual, at the Empa Academy at the Duebendorf site.

Empa scientists have succeeded in constructing a spinning apparatus which is capable of producing polymer fibers with diameters in the nanometer range. The fibers and the machine that creates them will be on display and working at the NanoPubli stand at the Olma Fair in St. Gall from 13th to 15th September.

From 13 to 15 September, Empa and NanoEurope will be giving public a chance to find out about the latest trends in nanotechnology at the NanoPubli show at the Olma trade fair in St. Gallen.

In the future, electronic waste will be recycled in an environmentally friendly way in China too. To help meet this aim, the Chinese province of Zhezjiang is, with the aid of the Empa, building a plant for recycling electronic waste. The Deputy Governor of the province, Chen Jiayuan, accompanied by a delegation, recently paid a visit to the Empa St. Gall, to strengthen this cooperation.

The Functional Fibres and Textiles department has been under new management since 1 July, when physicist Manfred Heuberger replaced interim department head Rudolf Hufenus.

The Mirko Roš Award for outstanding achievements in the field of materials and engineering science was presented for the very first time on 24 June 2005 as part of Empa's 125th birthday celebrations. Tribute was paid to three distinguished engineers, Alfred Rösli, Christian Menn and Aftab Mufti, who received the gold medal. A silver medal went to former Empa undergraduate student Doris Spori.

The Empa has been celebrating its 125th birthday, and at the official event on 24th June Federal Councilor Pascal Couchepin, National Councilor Barbara Haering, ETH-Council-President Alexander Zehnder and the leadership of the Empa addressed the invited guests. And for the first time the Mirko Roš Award was presented by the Empa in recognition of outstanding contributions to material and engineering sciences.

For centuries violin makers have been seeking the perfect sound. Now they have been joined in their quest by Empa's wood researchers. Working in conjunction with the "Master Studio for Violinmaking" in Munich, they are infecting wood with selected species of fungus with the aim of improving its acoustic properties. The first successes have already been achieved and a patent was applied for on 15 June. The fungus-infected violin wood will be on display at the open day in St. Gallen on 18 June.

Founded in 1880 as an institute for testing construction materials, Empa is now – 125 years on – a highly regarded research centre at the heart of the Swiss ETH domain. Its investigations and developments attract widespread attention and respect in the scientific and technological community. In celebration of its 125th birthday, the institute will throw open its doors in June to give the general public a behind-the-scenes look at its research activities.

Empa has coaxed the life story of bromided flame retardants from a drilling core cut from the bed of the Greifensee lake – their rapid ascendancy following their market launch, their subsequent fall from grace once their toxicity had been recognized and the explosion in popularity of their successor. The drilling core will be on display at Empa's Open Day in Dübendorf on Saturday 25 June 2005.

Asphaltic road surface plug joints have been constructed in Switzerland for over five years according to the guidelines established by ASTRA, the Swiss Federal Roads Authority. An updated version of this building code will be published this year. Professionals in the field met on April 5th at the Empa Academy to learn about the latest developments from experts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The aim of the one-day seminar was to draw the attention of the road building industry to the greater care necessary during the construction of asphaltic plug joints in road surfaces.

Switzerland and Poland draw closer in research affairs with a collaborative Doctoral College in material sciences. Representatives from the field of Swiss and Polish science, together with those from both countries’ governments, ceremonially signed an agreement on April 12th 2005 in the Polish Embassy in Berne.

On 14 and 17 March 2005 Empa signed two scientific cooperation agreements with partner universities in developing countries. Cooperation will focus on environmental science and technology. The Technology and Society Laboratory's sustec group took the lead in selecting the universities and conducting the groundwork. The agreements have been signed with two first-class universities in Empa's longstanding partner countries Columbia and Peru.

On 7 March 2005 Empa took part in a highly unusual world championship in San Diego at which robots had the chance to compete against a female student in arm wrestling. According to the rules, only robots that generate force by means of electrically activated polymers (EAP) were allowed to take part. The Empa team under Dr Gabor Kovacs achieved a notable success, taking second place in this first ever “Arm Wrestling Robot” competition.

On December 13/14th 2004 the start of the project "ExtreMat" was celebrated at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching. "ExtreMat" is a 5 years Integrated Project of the 6th EU Framework Program with 38 partners from research and industry, including Empa. This project aims at providing and industrialising novel knowledge-based materials and their compounds for top-end and new applications in extreme environments in the fields of energy and aerospace.