Meet the faculty
As students you will not only engage in research but also get to know your supervisors and their research groups. Find all our current faculty here.
Click on the quotes below to get a more personal impression of a sample of our faculty members.
Prof. Otmar Hilliges
human-computer interaction, augmented reality, virtual reality, human robot interaction, input devices, machine perception
Interests/hobbies outside of science
I like cycling, running and many other endurance sports, snowboarding and generally being outside.
Favourite inspirational quote
"Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done."
If I had one year of paid leave I would…
Travel, volunteer, read lots of books.
If I weren't a scientist I would be…
A beach bum and environmental activist.
What is your guiding philosophy for running your lab and doing research?
I want my PhD students to leverage the scientific method to shape and invent technologies that will have profound impact on our daily lives. I encourage them do go on wild tangents and to dare creative new approaches - to think outside of the box in other words.
What does diversity in CS mean to you and why is it important?
Our research is half-parts creation of knowledge and half innovation. For new ideas to emerge it is of vital importance to have a strong technical understanding but also to look at a particular problem from as many different viewpoints as possible. Bringing people with diverse backgrounds together and to encourage expression of diverse opinions is the best way of achieving this.
What's the impact of your research on the society?
We shape the technologies that shape our daily lives and hence work in our area can impact millions of users.
Prof. Torsten Hoefler
datacenter architecture and networking, cloud computing, climate simulations, large-scale machine learning, quantum and high-performance computing
Interests/hobbies outside of science
Running and hiking mountains, fighting competitions.
Favourite inspirational quote
"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."
If I had one year of paid leave I would…
write a good book.
If I weren’t a scientist I would be…
probably a student.
What is your guiding philosophy for running your lab and doing research?
It's most important that every team member works on a topic that he/she drives personally and that is interesting for him. Also, it's important to have a team in which everybody is happy to be part of that team. And hard work is necessary for great success.
Fun fact about your field/subject of research
I have touched the five fastest (publicly known) computers on the planet in 2016.
What does diversity in CS mean to you and why is it important?
That everybody has an equal chance for success and is only judged on his/her brilliance.
What's the impact of your research on the society?
High-performance computing is used in pretty much any part of modern society, from simulating water in diapers and Pringles chips on a conveyor belt up to ultra-sound jets and space rockets.
Prof. Ueli Maurer
cryptography, information security, theoretical computer science, information theory, discrete mathematics
Interests/hobbies outside of science
I like the mountains (hiking and hanggliding), I play the violin, and I enjoy excellent food and wines.
Favourite inspirational quote
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." — Albert Einstein
If I had one year of paid leave I would…
I do not need a paid leave to do what I want; I simply love my research.
If I weren't a scientist I would be…
a musician or a cook.
What is your guiding philosophy for running your lab and doing research?
Whatever we do, we try to do it "right once and for all" to create something useful for the long term rather than a short-lived artefact or result I support people in insisting on asking (and answering) the right questions.
Fun fact about your field/subject of research
Cryptography can be seen as a science of paradoxes; it's like magic. Think of public-key cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, or anonynous digital money.
What does diversity in CS mean to you and why is it important?
The whole range from deep theory to cool applications.
What's the impact of your research on the society?
We lay the foundations for designing provably secure cryptographic protocols which is desperately needed in view of the enormous vulnerabilities of the IT infrastructure.
Prof. Marc Pollefeys
computer vision, 3D modeling, robotic perception, computer graphics, machine learning
Interests/hobbies outside of science
Reading graphic novels, playing volleyball and skiing.
If I had one year of paid leave I would…
work on HoloLens ;-)
If I weren't a scientist I would be…
an engineer.
What is your guiding philosophy for running your lab and doing research?
Focus on solving real problems that have impact in the world.
Fun fact about your field/subject of research
Anyone can see if your algorithm obtained the right result or not.
What does diversity in CS mean to you and why is it important?
A successful team combines different viewpoints and different talents so that the outcome is greater than what could be achieved by any member of the team.
What's the impact of your research on the society?
Computer vision is starting to enable computer systems to understand the world around them, letting them navigate and explore and interact with people in their environment. The biggest impact in the next few years will be in augmented reality and autonomous vehicles and robotics.
Prof. Timothy Roscoe
Website
operating systems, distributed systems, networking, enterprise computing
Interests/hobbies outside of science
Cooking, hiking, skiing, poststructuralism, and cocktails. Not necessarily in that order.
Favourite inspirational quote
"If it's not fun, why do it?"
If I had one year of paid leave I would…
rent a house somewhere warm by the sea, experiment with cooking, and write a book (not about cooking).
If I weren’t a scientist I would be…
a political philosopher - probably a bad one.
What is your guiding philosophy for running your lab and doing research?
Systems research is all about learning by building things together - everyone is part of the team. One leads by doing - never tell anyone to do something that you don't think you could do (if you were as smart as them). The most meaningful measure of how well I'm doing as a professor is how successful my students become.
Fun fact about your field/subject of research
Anyone who isn't confused by modern computer hardware probably doesn't understand it yet.
What does diversity in CS mean to you and why is it important?
The greater diversity in culture, gender, background, experience, and approach you have in a group, the more creative, productive, and insightful your group will be. Any time we exclude some class of people, we limit the scope of our thinking, and that's not something we want to do.
What's the impact of your research on the society?
Computers are pervasive in our personal lives, our jobs, industry, medicine, science, and many other areas. We try to make them work faster, more cheaply, and more reliably.
Prof. Olga Sorkine-Hornung
digital content creation, shape representation and editing, digital geometry processing, fabrication, image and video manipulation, computer animation
Interests/hobbies outside of science
I love hiking and I'm a chocolatier and producer of artisanal spirits.
Favourite inspirational quote
"What is now proved was once only imagined."
If I had one year of paid leave I would…
go on a backpacking trip around the world with my family.
If I weren’t a scientist I would be…
a medical doctor.
What is your guiding philosophy for running your lab and doing research?
I try to help every lab member fulfill their potential and push the boundaries of their ability and imagination. Research is a team sport, and my job is to be the coach and team member at the same time, making sure everybody has all they need to be inspired and productive.
Fun fact about your field/subject of research
Recently one of my PhD students was asked if he can paint graffiti on a wall in Vienna using an algorithm he had developed.
What does diversity in CS mean to you and why is it important?
Diversity in CS to me means having the privilege to work in a brilliant, intellectually rich and stimulating working environment. It is important because diversity leads to better ideas and better science.
Prof. Angelika Steger
Website
algorithms, combinatorics, randomization and probabilistic methods, combinatorial models for optimization
Interests/hobbies outside of science
Hiking.
Favourite inspirational quote
"I have made this letter so long only because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter." — Blaise Pascal
If I had one year of paid leave I would…
do what I love most: try to get some idea on how our brains 'compute'
If I weren’t a scientist I would be…
probably not a happy person.
What is your guiding philosophy for running your lab and doing research?
To have an impact quality and not quantity matters.
Fun fact about your field/subject of research
In combinatorics problems can be inherently difficult even they look trivial.
What does diversity in CS mean to you and why is it important?
For me diversity in science (not just CS) is a constant source of inspiration.
What's the impact of your research on the society?
Only history will tell: my aim is to have an impact in the long run.
Prof. Martin Vechev
program analysis, program synthesis, application of machine learning to programming languages, concurrency
Program analysis, program synthesis, application of machine learning to programming languages, concurrency
Interests/hobbies outside of science
I like sports, in particular I have been involved in the sport of Judo for 20+ years and train when I have time (my son is also involved).
Favorite inspirational quote
I like many quotes, for instance one of Einstein's quotes: "A problem cannot be solved at the same level of understanding it was created."
If I had one year of paid leave I would…
I don't think I can last too long without doing some kind of research, so I would still be involved in something, probably exploring a new area.
If I weren't a scientist I would be…
some kind of musician as my mother (a piano professor) made me play the piano and cello for years before I finally succeeded in escaping to a math high school :)
What is your guiding philosophy for running your lab and doing research?
We generally like to build systems that solve interesting and important problems in a clean and general way, without limiting ourselves to particular areas. Thus, often, our work is fairly inter-disciplinary in nature, connecting several areas of science. Of great importance to me is the success of individual students at all levels (B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD), both, during their studies at ETH, and after.
Fun fact about your field/subject of research
A funny Twitter comment for one of the public systems we built, external page jsnice.org (which has about 200,000 users worldwide now) says: "This is too awesome."
What does diversity in CS mean to you and why is it important?
People of very different backgrounds and perspectives coming together to solve new problems not possible otherwise.
What's the impact of your research on the society?
Some of the probabilistic systems we have released publicly (e.g. external page jsnice.org, external page apk-deguard.com) are used on a daily basis by hundreds of people around the world to solve security and software tasks not possible before.