Pharmacy at the ETH Zürich – Past and Present

Abstract

Pharmacy has a long-standing tradition at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The last 149 years have seen a vigorous expansion from a single professor to a faculty of about ten and from a few students per year to about one hundred in 2003. Starting out as part of the Chemistry section in the early days of the ETH, Pharmacy became an independent unit in 1916 when it was moved to a new location at Clausiusstrasse 25. With various changes in organizational structure it remained there until 1993, when it was transferred to the Irchel Campus of the University of Zürich due to lack of space. Upon the installation of autonomous departments at the ETH in 2003, the critical size for organizational units was becoming an issue. As a consequence the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences together with the three Chemistry Laboratories and the Institute of Chemical and Bioengineering decided to establish the new Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB). With the move to the HCI Hönggerberg, the five Institutes of the D-CHAB have also become re-united at the same location.