IAS History

Before 2010, the groups of the current institute were distributed among two separate institutes. One of them, the Institute of Plant Science (IPW) was founded by professors from the Departments of Agricultural and Food Sciences (D-AGRL) and Biology (D-BIOL) in 1986, following the recommendation of an International Commission headed by Nobel Laureate Werner Arber. It combined the former Institutes of Crop Science, Plant Health, and General Botany. The second institute was first formed as the Institute of Animal Production (renamed in 1986 to Institute of Animal Science - INW), combining the former Institutes of Animal Breeding, Physiology and Hygiene, Animal Nutrition, and the Laboratory of Biometry and Population Genetics.

As of 2010, a merger brought together all professorships in agricultural sciences as full or associated members into one unit, first under the name Institute of Plant, Animal and Agroecosystem Sciences (IPAS), then renamed in 2011 to Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IAS). This name highlights the continuous commitment of its members to sustainable agriculture in the Department of Environmental Systems Science. The members of IAS together with the professorships in Agricultural Economics and in Plant Pathology are responsible for the BSc and MSc programs in agricultural sciences at ETH Zurich.

At the beginning of 2017, the professors from D-BIOL founded the Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (IMPB) but will remain associated to the IAS.