Travel Directions
For best results, book a flight to Zurich Ariport (ZRH). Zurich Airport is serviced by many major airlines, with direct flights from many international cities, and is a short 10 minutes trip from the city center.
Train When you arrive at the airport follow the "Bahn/Train" signs which will take you to the bottom floor. Take any train that goes to the Zurich main station, Hauptbahnhof (HB) in German, which is a ten minute ride. From Zurich HB, you can take the tram number 10 from "Bahnhofplatz" (the big square in front of the main station) or the tram number 6 from Bahnhofstrasse. In both cases, exit at "ETH/Universitatsspital" (the 3rd stop). The ETH main building is located adjacent to the tram stop.
Tram Alternatively a light rail connection "Glattalbahn" (physically the same as a tram, also circulates as tram line number 10) runs from the airport directly to ETH, without the need to change. Trip time is about 28 minutes. Follow the "Tramway" signs, board on the platform outside the airport on departure level, and leave the tram at the stop "ETH/Universittsspital" (right in front of the ETH main building). From ETH to the airport, take tram line number 10 with the destination "airport" (with an airplane icon; note that some trains don't go all the way to the airport). There are typically 4 airport connections per hour.
Taxi You can also take a taxi (approx. 60 Swiss Francs) to "ETH Hauptgebaude, Ramistrasse 101", which, though, might take longer than public transport.
Tickets When using public transport, please remember to purchase a ticket before boarding. Tickets are available from vending machines in the halls of train stations or at bus and tram stops.
Request for Visa Invitation Letters
(Co)authors of papers who wish to attend PAM or TMA 2010 and who need a visa will be issued an invitation letter confirming that they are participating and contributing to the conference. They need to request an invitation letter and submit a copy of the identification page of their passport.
We often experience fraudulent requests for invitation letters. For proper identification as members of the scientific community, potential participants who need a visa invitation letter and who are not authors or otherwise known to the community are kindly requested to submit evidence that they do scientific work in the area of the conference. Therefore they have to provide us with:
- name and address, including e-mail address
- their affiliation
- URL of their webpage
- list of their publications
- copy of the identification page of their passport
In all cases the invitation letter will mention that the attendees will have to cover the cost of their participation by themselves (minus the amount of an awarded travel grant, if applicable). Invitation letter requests and the supporting material should be send to Xenofontas Dimitropoulos.
Local Information
"Zurich, Downtown Switzerland"
Even though this is a slogan created by Zurich Tourism,
there is some truth in it. Zurich is the economic capital of
Switzerland. With a population of merely some 400'000 people
within the community borders, Zurich is the heart of an economic
area that encompasses some 1.5 Million people, even reaching
into southern Germany, from where many day commuters cross over
the border for their daily work. Zurich is well-known for its
financial industry, with all its implications. Note, however,
that the legendary anonymous bank accounts that are only
identified by a number have disappeared long ago - you meet them
only in movies, nowadays.
Zurich is also beloved for its
splendid location beneath the lake and its hills, and the
quality of life it provides to its citizens. They sometimes
think that traffic created by commuters is severe, but two
Indian students who recently spent 6 months at ETH found that
there is not traffic at all in the city. The truth lies
somewhere between, I think.
For more information, see
also the Wikipedia article about Zurich.
Some visual impressions
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Education and Research
Of course, Zurich is also known for its world class technical
university, ETH Zurich. ETH currently has some 14'000 students, of
which more than 3200 are doctoral students. This figure highlights the
importance of research at ETH. Teaching and research is carried out in
16 departments, spanning from architecture and civil engineering,
mechanical and electrical engineering, and computer science to natural
sciences, mathematics, physics, management and social sciences. ETH
Zurich has been consistently ranked first on the European continent
(fluctuating around rank 25 among the world's universities). So far,
21 Nobel laureates were associated with ETH Zurich, among them also
Albert Einstein.
ETH Zurich is owned by the Swiss
Confederation, just like its smaller sister, EPF Lausanne
(EPFL).
Zurich also hosts the University of Zurich, a
university covering all areas of arts and science, with some 24'000
students.
Both ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich are
located in the city's centre, and each have a second campus located a
few kilometers north-west of the center.
Just a few kilometers
to the south-east is the location of the IBM Zurich Research
Lab. There are many links between this lab and ETH Zurich; the most
recent one is the establishment of a new nanotechnology laboratory in
June 2009, as a joint venture of IBM and ETH.
PAM 2010 at ETH Zurich
PAM 2010 will be held in the classical main building of ETH, which
was built between 1853 and 1864 by the famous architect (and ETH
professor) Gottfried Semper, who also built the Dresden Opera
House.
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(Text by Bernhard Plattner & Xenofontas Dimitropoulos)
!!! This document is stored in the ETH Web archive and is no longer maintained !!!