Past activities & events

In order to offer the broad public insights into modern life science research, Life Science Zurich regularly organises talks, discussions and competitions.

An overview of our past exhibitions can be found here.

Past conferences on various topics, which were realised with the support of Life Science Zurich, can be found here.

Since 2010 Life Science Zurich has been organizing the Nationaler Zukunftstag for children of UZH emloyees at Irchel Campus. The Zukunftstag takes place annually at the beginning of November. About 120 children from the 5th to 7th grade attend the afternoon program, which consists of ateliers and workshops. At the end of the afternoon, all children meet in the auditorium for an experimental lecture in physics or chemistry.

Website Nationaler Zukunftstag am Campus Irchel

The Science Photo Marathhon took place September 2019 and 2021. It was organized by the Science Film Academy in collaboration  with Life Science Zurich and further partners (Zoological Museum UZH, EAWAG, focusTerra ETH). During the one-day marathon, participants had the task to photograph two motifs on a specific theme (2019: "motion & static", 2021: "natural & synthetic") at different locations of UZH and ETH. The submitted pictures were evaluated by a jury according to the criteria "topic", "creativity" and "quality". The award ceremony took place at the Filmpodium Zurich during the Global Science Film Festivals.

Website Science Photo Marathon

From 2026 to 2022 Life Science Zurich has presented in collaboration with Eye on Science  sciente talks in conjunction with selected films of the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF).

2022:

• Talk zum Film Fire of Love
• Talks zum Film Rubikon
• Talk zum Film TikTok Boom
• Talk zum Film Alpenland

2021:

• «Mensch vs. Tier» talk connected to the film From the Wild Sea
• «Let’s talk about the female sex» talk connected to the film The Dilemma of Desire
• «Science Matter» a panel discussion on #filterbubble #fakenews #falsebalancing

2019:

• «Klimaverholzung» talk connected to the film Bruno Manser - Die Stimme des Regenwaldes
• «Mensch. Maschine!» talk connected to the film Sound of Metal
• «Facing Robots» interactive exhibition about the world of robotics

2018:

• «Frontiers of genetic research» connected to the film Genesis 2.0
• «When Science Fiction becomes Reality» connected to the film The Truth about Killer Robots
• «Seeing Science» exhibition of scientific images and videos and virtual reality experience.

2017:

• «AIDS: death sentence - normal living - complete cure?»  talk connected to the film 120 Beats per Minute

2016:

• «Future children» talk connected to the film Future Baby
• «Food for thought» talk connected to the film The Islands and the Whales
• «Is ingenuity trainable?» talk connected to the film Magnus

At the Global Science Film Festival in Zurich, the film world and science meet in the cinema . The festival shows international feature films, documentaries and short films that link current global developments with scientific debates. The topics are explored in depth after all screenings in moderated discussions between the audience, the filmmakers and researchers.

Life Science Zurich has been an organizing partner of the Global Science Film Festival since 2016.

In the autumn semester 2013, Life Science Zurich organised in collaboration with Effy Vayena (then professor at the Institute of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention of the UZH) a number of talks on personalised medicine.

In the fall and winter of 2006 to 2011, the Science Bar was held at the sphères bar-bookstore on the first Monday of each month. Life Science Zurich invited the interested public to discuss a current scientific topic with researchers over a beer or a coffee. Open discussions between the public and experts took place. Life Science Zurich realized the Science Bar in collaboration with the foundationSciences et Cité,  advocacy ag and the bar-bookshop sphères

Within the scope of the "International Year of Biodiversity" Life Science Zurich Communication & Events hosted a photographic competition on the theme of "Diversity of Nature". A jury of specialists judged the submitted photographs and a small exhibition presented three awarded photos from each category.

Everybody wants to grow old but nobody wants to be old. During the first Zurich Life Science Week in May 2006, researchers from the most varied fields presented the newest findings on geriatric research. More