Welcome to the Institute of Agricultural Sciences

The Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IAS) of the ETH Zurich is the platform for research and education of Agricultural Sciences in Switzerland. The Institute is characterized by its excellence in disciplinary and interdisciplinary research in plants, livestock and agro-ecosystems. Its members support the BSc in agricultural sciences and the MSc in agroecosystem sciences of the ETH Zurich . Scientists from a variety of disciplines work together at IPAS to develop the basic scientific principles for productive, environmentally sound and cost-effective  agricultural systems in Alpine regions as well as in developing countries.

The Institute was established on 1 January 2010 by members of the former Institutes of Plant Sciences and Animal Sciences. It includes the following groups from two departments:

To the Department of Environmental Systems Science hosts the following Plant and Animal Science disciplines:

- Applied Entomology: Prof. Silvia Dorn

- Grassland Science: Prof. Nina Buchmann

- Crop Science: Prof. Peter Stamp / Prof. Achim Walter

- Plant Nutrition: Prof. Emmanuel Frossard

- Terrestrial Ecosystem Physiology: Prof. Alexander Knohl

- Animal Nutrition: Prof. Michael Kreuzer

- Breeding Biology: Prof. P. Vögeli / Prof. Michael Kreuzer

- Animal Behaviour, Health and Welfare: Dr. Edna Hillmann / Prof. Michael Kreuzer.

To the Departement of Biology hosts the following Plant Science disciplines:

- Plant Biotechnology: Prof. Wilhelm Gruissem

- Plant Developmental Biology: Prof. Claudia Köhler

- Plant Biochemistry: Prof. Sam Zeeman.

- RNA Biology: Prof. Olivier Voinnet.

The IAS is centrally located in Zurich in the old building for agriculture and forestry (Land- und Forstwirtschaft) (LFW).

The research
station at Eschikon-Lindau, 15 km northeast of the institute’s location in
Zurich, belongs to the Institute and includes high-performance greenhouses and
growth chambers, some experimental field plots as well as laboratories and
offices. The members of IAS are also the main users of the ETH research
stations at Chamau, Früebüel and Alp Weissenstein, which are operated by the
Department of Agriculture and Food Science. The entomological collection
belongs to the Applied Entomology Group and includes more than two million
specimens. Together with their long-time co-worker, Ernst Merz, who was
responsible for the cereal cultivar garden with its collection of cultivars,
the Crop Science Group runs a virtual garden of these cultivars. It shows the
ancestry of our four main cereals, wheat, barley, rye and oats, as well as a
selection of landraces and cultivars from the Switzerland and the world.