chemistry

Urs von Gunten

Urs von Gunten is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Urs von Gunten rather than just read about it. In short: Urs von Gunten (born 20 October 1959) is a Swiss environmental chemist and a professor at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). He is known for his research in the fields of drinking water quality and water treatment.

Key takeaways

Urs von Gunten belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Urs von Gunten to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Urs von Gunten from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Urs von Gunten (born 20 October 1959) is a Swiss environmental chemist and a professor at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). He is known for his research in the fields of drinking water quality and water treatment.

Career Urs von Gunten obtained a diploma in chemistry in 1983 and a PhD in inorganic chemistry in 1989 from ETH Zurich. He then performed post-doctoral work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science (Eawag), where he became head of the chemistry department (1998–1999) and of the Water Resources and Drinking Water department (2000–2004). He then took the lead of the cross-disciplinary project 'Drinking Water for the 21st century' until 2008, was the head of the transdisciplinary project “Regional Water Supply Basel Country 21” (2013–2016) and of the competence center for drinking water (2010–2017) at Eawag. Urs von Gunten was appointed lecturer at ETH Zurich in 1995 and an adjunct professor in 2006. He was a visiting scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder (2000–2001), and a visiting professor at the Curtin University in Perth, Australia (2008–2009) and at the University of California, Berkeley (2017–2018). In 2011, he was nominated full professor at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne).

Research Urs von Gunten heads the laboratory for Water Quality and Treatment (LTQE) at EPFL and the drinking water chemistry group at Eawag. His research focuses on oxidation and disinfection processes in the context of drinking water and waste water treatments. He has notably extensively studied the formation of potentially toxic chemical byproducts upon drinking water ozonation and chlorination. In a Perspective article published in the journal Science in 2011, von Gunten warned that water chlorination may lead to the formation of hazardous disinfection by-products through oxidation of substrates originating from organic matter and pharmaceuticals. He later advocated that chlorination could be foregone altogether, should adequate protective measures for water sources and distribution networks be taken. von Gunten has also explored novel treatment modalities to remove halide ions from bromide and iodide-containing water. In 2018, he published a highly cited perspective article on oxidation processes, summarizing the options and limitations of this treatment. von Gunten co-authored a book on ozone chemistry together with Clemens von Sonntag in 2012. Urs von Gunten has also tackled the role of climate change and other anthropogenic factors on drinking water quality.

Distinctions Urs von Gunten received the Harvey Rosen Award in 2001, 2007 and 2015 from the International Ozone Association, as well as the Environmental Science and Technology Excellence in Review Award in 2007. It is announced, that he will receive the ACS Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology in 2022. In 2007, he received an Honorary Professorship at the Harbin Institute of Technology. He has been an adjunct professor at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology since 2012. In 2015, he received a professorship under the Chinese Academy of Sciences President's International Fellowship Initiative for Distinguished Scientists. As of 2021, his research papers have been cited more than 38,000 times and his h-index is 97. He was a highly cited researcher according to Thomson Reuters Web of Science in 2014 and 2015, and according to Clarivate Analytics in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Urs von Gunten

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Urs von Gunten claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Urs von Gunten before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Urs von Gunten ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Urs von Gunten

In research: Urs von Gunten appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Urs von Gunten in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Urs von Gunten is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1959 births, Academic staff of Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Urs von Gunten outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Urs von Gunten in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Urs von Gunten means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Urs von Gunten out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Urs von Gunten in simple terms?

Why does Urs von Gunten matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Urs von Gunten?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Urs von Gunten.