Armin Siegrist
Armin Siegrist
Student / Programme Doctorate at D-HEST
Additional information
Research area
Food systems are under an increasing pressure to provide a growing global population with healthy diets without exceeding the planetary boundaries. Many research groups, including this one, are working hard on innovative solutions and technologies to alleviate this pressure and to shape the future of food production. At the same time, robust analyses of the feasibility and potential impacts of these innovations are needed. In his doctoral research, Armin will work on the development and implementation of sustainability assessment methods in the food sector. Life cycle assessment, scenario analysis, and system modelling will be used among other tools to deepen the understanding of current and future production systems and to evaluate their sustainability in multiple dimensions. Thereby, a special focus will be placed on alternative protein sources from e.g., plants, fungi, algae, and insects. With his work, he seeks to contribute to a purposeful and knowledge-based food system transformation.
Armin received his BSc and MSc in Environmental Engineering from ETH Zürich. The focus of his master’s program was resources management. It covered topics such as circular economy, recycling and waste treatment, sustainable management practices, and sustainability assessment methods. In his master’s project, he compared different methodologies for assessing land use change induced greenhouse gas emissions for eaternity, a provider of environmental footprint calculations for the food sector. Armin concluded his studies with a master’s thesis at the research institute WSL. The thesis aimed at investigating the influence of spatial restrictions on biogas production potentials from agricultural residues based on a techno-spatial assessment using GIS. In September 2022, Armin joined the sustainable food processing group as a PhD candidate under Alexander Mathys’ supervision, which allowed him to combine his background in sustainability assessment with his interest in food production.