ETH PhD Academy on Sustainability and Technology 2017
Ensuring a Sustainable Future: Technological, Organizational, and Institutional Change
To download the call for papers, please Download click here (PDF, 654 KB).
May 29 - June 3, 2017
Many new technologies, such as solar PV, electric vehicles and storage solutions, are being developed and improved to address the sustainability challenges facing society in the 21st century. Although technological change is central to ensuring a sustainable future, changes also need to happen within organizations and institutions to support new technologies to further develop and diffuse. For example, new technologies are associated with new patterns of collaboration and business models. Many need to be used in combination with each other, for example renewables and storage technologies. This creates challenges for organizations and policymakers who increasingly need to take technological complexity and interdependence into account.
This year’s academy is concerned with technological, organizational, and institutional change in the context of sustainability (e.g. energy, water, mobility, food). It provides a unique platform for junior researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) with a background in management, innovation studies, economics or political sciences to present their work to an audience of like-minded scholars and four international faculty with a track record in research on innovation and sustainability. Participants will obtain detailed feedback on their research design, theoretical approaches and methodology. In addition, there will be plenty of room for informal discussions and networking with other junior scholars and professors. Students in previous years have come from, amongst others, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Michigan, the University of Cambridge, and Oxford University.
Research of the participants should focus on – but is not limited to – the following topics:
- Innovation strategies and organizational change in the context of sustainability
- Institutions and institutional change in the context of sustainability
- Technology and innovation policy in the context of energy, water, mobility or foodInnovation systems and technological change in the context of sustainability
- Socio-technical or techno-economic assessment of technologies related to sustainability
Applications should be sent to Aoife Brophy Haney () and include (i) a cover letter explaining your motivation, (ii) a proposal abstract of max. 2 pages, and (iii) a CV. The deadline for application is March 13, 2017. Notification of acceptance will be given by April 1, 2017. Deadline for full paper submission (10-15 pages) is May 1, 2017. For additional information, please see the previous academies’ programs on our website (http://www.sustec.ethz.ch/education/PhD_Academy/) or contact Aoife Brophy Haney. We look forward to receiving your application!
Kathleen Eisenhardt is the Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor for Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
Dr. Eisenhardt's research focus is strategy and organization, especially in technology-based companies and high-velocity industries. She is currently studying the use of heuristics and other cognitive strategies, strategic interaction in new markets and novel ecosystems, and strategy making by boards of directors. She has received numerous awards, including the career Scholarly Contribution Award from the Academy of Management, the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Organization Theory and Management (OMT) and Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) divisions, and the ASQ Scholarly Contribution award for the most influential paper five years after publication. She was recently noted as most cited research author in strategy and organization studies for the past 25 years. Professor Eisenhardt consults at senior levels with firms in industries ranging from Internet, telecommunications, software, and biotech to agribusiness, semiconductors, and clean tech.
Dr. Eisenhardt was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Management and of the Strategic Management Society, and is an INFORMS member. She has served on the editorial boards of ASQ, Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. She has been a Fellow of the World Economic Forum (Davos) and Clinton Global Initiative, a member of General Motors' Science Advisory Committee, and a board member of MWH Global, an international engineering design and construction firm. She serves on the Advisory Board of Start-Up Chile. Eisenhardt received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Brown University, cum laude and with honors). She holds an M.S. in computer science. Her Ph.D. is from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Professor Eisenhardt has several honorary degrees including from London Business School, Aalto University, and Chalmers University of Technology.
Inês Azevedo is Associate Professor for Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Dr. Azevedo’s research interests lie at the intersection of environmental, technical, and economic issues, such as how to address the challenge of climate change and to move towards a more sustainable energy system. She tackles complex problems in which traditional engineering plays an important role but cannot provide a complete answer. In particular, she has been looking at how energy systems are likely to be shaped in the future, which requires comprehensive knowledge not only of the technologies that can address future energy needs but also of the decision-making process followed by different agents in the economy. Dr. Azevedo has also been working on assessing how specific policies will shape future energy systems, especially in a carbon-constrained world.
Dr. Azevedo holds a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon Unversity, an M.Sc. in Engineering Policy and Management of Technolog, and a B.Sc and M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from IST, Portugal.
Volker Hoffmann is full professor for sustainability and technology at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics of ETH Zurich.
He received a diploma in chemical engineering from ETH Zurich in 1997 and a diploma in business administration from the University of Hagen, Germany, in 1999. In 1996/97 and 1999/2000 he worked as a visiting scholar and scientist at MIT where he investigated uncertainty propagation in large scale process models for the chemical industry (group of Gregory J. McRae). In 2001, he obtained his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich with a thesis on multi-objective decision making under uncertainty in chemical process design (group of Konrad Hungerbühler). Before joining the faculty of ETH Zurich in 2004, he was a project manager at McKinsey & Company where he worked in the chemical and electricity industry. He focused on strategy development for European utility companies, especially in the light of upcoming greenhouse gas regulations. During his career, Volker Hoffmann received several scholarships and awards including a German National Academic Foundation Scholarship (1994-97), an Ernest-Solvay-Scholarship (1996/97), and an Exchange Fellow Scholarship of the Alliance for Global Sustainability (1999/2000).
Volker Hoffmann's research at ETH Zurich centers on corporate strategies with respect to climate change, with a focus on climate policy, energy policy, and innovation. Recent research results are being published in journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, the California Management Review, Research Policy, Climate Policy, Energy Policy, Global Environmental Change, the Journal of Industrial Ecology, Policy Sciences, Environmental Science & Policy, Energy Economics, the European Management Journal, Business Strategy & the Environment, Environmental Science & Policy and Ecological Economics.