Wenger, Ariane | Switzerland

Ariane Wenger is a doctoral student at the Transdisciplinarity Lab (TdLab) at the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich. Previously, she graduated from ETH Zurich in environmental sciences with a focus on "Environmental Systems and Policy". As part of her master’s thesis, she analyzed the public perception and acceptance of negative emission technologies (NETs) among the Swiss public. Her doctoral thesis on the reduction of academic air travel and virtual communication is strongly linked to the practice of ETH Zurich and the ETH air travel project. In her dissertation, she aims to understand how academic conference practices can be made more sustainable without compromising the quality of conferences. By applying a transdisciplinary research approach, she integrates knowledge and concepts from different stakeholders and scientific disciplines to produce results of practical and scientific relevance.

Project at IAS-STS: Reducing academic air travel – An analysis of shifting conference practices

In her dissertation, Ariane Wenger is examining the mobility practices of researchers to contribute to the understanding of how we can transition towards low-carbon mobility systems. The focus lies on conference air travel, as conferences – which are deeply embedded in the academic career and serve a variety of purposes, such as scientific knowledge exchange and networking – are one of the most important reasons of air travel by researchers. She investigates the opinions and perspectives of researchers on different conference formats (in-person, hybrid, virtual). The aim is to inform researchers and conference organizers as well as the ETH air travel project to decide on future conference practices by facilitating decisions on suitable conference formats and their design.

Selected Publications:

Wenger, A., & Turi, G. (2023). Transformation toward sustainable academia: ETH Zurich’s Air Travel Project. GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 32(3), 323-326. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.32.3.9 

Wenger, A. (2023). Shifting from academic air travel to sustainable research exchange: Examining networking efficacy during virtual conferences. Journal of Cleaner Production, 414:137577. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137577 

Djinlev, V., Dallo, I., Müller, S. M., Surchat, M., von Rothkirch, J., Wenger, A., Späth, L. (2023). Challenges and strategies in transdisciplinary research-early career researchers’ perspectives.

Wenger, A. (2022). Air travel at ETH - Results from a survey among scientific staff. https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b.-000553239 

Köhler, J. K., Kreil, A. S., Wenger, A., Darmandieu, A., Graves, C., Haugestad, C. A. P., Holzen, V., Keller, A., Lloyd, S., Marczak, M., Medugorac, V., & Rosa, C.D (2022). The need for sustainability, equity, and international exchange: Perspectives of early career environmental psychologists on the future of conference. Frontiers in Psychology, 13:906108. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.906108