ETH Zurich – Where the future beginsFreedom and individual responsibility, entrepreneurial spirit and open-mindedness: ETH Zurich stands on a bedrock of true Swiss values. Our university for science and technology dates back to the year 1855, when the founders of modern-day Switzerland created it as a centre of innovation and knowledge. At ETH Zurich, students discover an ideal environment for independent thinking, researchers a climate which in-spires top performance. Situated in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, ETH Zurich is pioneering effective solutions to the global challenges of today and tomorrow.Some 530 professors teach around 20,500 students – including 4,100 doctoral students – from over 120 countries. Their collective research embraces many disciplines: natural sciences and engineering scienc-es, architecture, mathematics, system-oriented natural sciences, as well as management and social sci-ences. The results and innovations produced by ETH researchers are channelled into some of Switzer-land's most high-tech sectors: from computer science through to micro- and nanotechnology and cutting-edge medicine. Every year ETH registers around 90 patents and 200 inventions on average. Since 1996, the university has produced a total of 380 commercial spin-offs. ETH also has an excellent reputation in scientific circles: 21 Nobel laureates have studied, taught or researched here, and in international league tables ETH Zurich regularly ranks as one of the world's top universities.