Doctoral School

As a core element of research education, the doctorate at ETH Zurich is normally understood as individual studies where each doctoral student is supervised by one professor and working alone or within a research group on a subject either self-chosen or proposed by a broader project. Besides the individual doctorates, D-ARCH established Doctoral Programmes within the Doctoral School as best practice of research education.

The doctoral programs guarantee the quality of doctoral studies by providing good conditions for the doctoral students. They offer three-year fellowships and excellent supervision within a structured schedule. The selection is based on a structured procedure. Additionally, the programs provide free and open exchange formats and a cooperative supervision, both with the objective of ensuring the high quality of doctoral education and reducing the dependency of the students on a single supervisor. The Department offers three Doctoral Programmes:

— Doctoral Program in Architecture and Technology (since 2012)
— Doctoral Program in History and Theory (since 2012)
— Doctoral Program in Urban and Landscape Studies (since 2019)

The Doctoral Programmes have flat hierarchies (multiple advisors) and do not follow thematic guidelines. The Doctoral School supports individual approaches and the responsibility of the emerging researchers. With this initiative, the Department moves away from the tradition of individually led doctorates.

The number of applicants for these positions reflects the success of the Doctoral programmes. The fellows of the programmes develop into excellent researchers and go on to successful academic careers:

• external pageMasoud Akbarzadehcall_made, Assistant Professor of Architecture in Structures and Advanced Technologies/Director of the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory (PSL), former fellow of Doctoral Programme in Architecture and Technology
• external pageKathrin Dörflercall_made, Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Technical University of Munich, former fellow of Doctoral Programme in Architecture and Technology
• external pageSamia Hennicall_made, Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Cornell University, USA, former fellow of Doctoral Programme in History and Theory of Architecture
• external pageClayton Millercall_made, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore, former fellow of Doctoral Programme in Architecture and Technology
• external pageSarah Nicholscall_made, Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Rice University, USA, former fellow of Doctoral Programme in History and Theory of Architecture
• external pageLaila Seewangcall_made, Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Portland State University, USA, former fellow of Doctoral Programme in History and Theory of Architecture