If you look closely, PSI resembles a small city. We present a selection of 11 facilities and services located on the institute’s 342,000-square-metre campus. They are available to PSI’s 2,300 employees – and in some cases well beyond.
The hospital
Barbara Bachtiary works as a doctor at the Center for Proton Therapy (CPT). Proton therapy is an extremely precise and highly complex form of radiation therapy used in outpatient cancer treatment. Patients are referred from all over Switzerland. In children, it is the gold standard of radiotherapy. In adults, it is used to treat tumours in sensitive areas of the body, for example
in the brain, head and neck area, or in areas near nerves.
The fire brigade
In addition to her work as a chemical laboratory technician at PSI, Sasha Alexandra Diaz volunteers with the PSI fire brigade – alongside 90 other employees from all areas of PSI. The campus fire brigade’s primary responsibilities are rescuing people and fighting fires. It works closely with the fire brigades in nearby Würenlingen and Geissberg to assist with fighting fires in the surrounding area. The PSI fire brigade also serves as the cantonal radiation protection centre and assists local fire departments throughout the canton of Aargau in emergencies involving radioactive materials.
The mayor
Like the mayor of a city, PSI Director Christian Rüegg has a packed schedule – sometimes stretching into the evenings and weekends, with meetings, interviews, lectures, receptions… Supported by his secretarial and management staff, the heads of the research centers and the research committee, he fulfils his key task of enabling cutting-edge research in the natural and engineering sciences. He campaigns to ensure that Switzerland secures and maintains its prominent position in the international research landscape and that PSI, together with the entire ETH Domain, serves Switzerland in the best possible way.
The hotel
PSI has its own guesthouse. Rolf Pederiva works at the reception desk. Sixty-four rooms are available here on three floors, primarily for visiting researchers from all over the world who conduct experiments at PSI’s five large research facilities. A team of service staff looks after more than 2,200 guests annually. The guesthouse is located next to a small biotope on the banks of the Aare River, and in addition to the rooms, it offers a shared kitchen, a laundry room, a lounge and an outdoor seating area.
The workshop
Karin Zehnder completed an apprenticeship as a polymechanic at PSI. Today, she works as a design engineer and project manager for the process cooling section in the hydraulic engineering workshop. In addition to an electrical workshop, a plumbing workshop, a steel construction workshop and a training workshop on campus, PSI also has a workshop in the neighbouring Park Innovaare. Various technologies are used here – from special joining techniques to traditional machining.
The laundry
Senta Schneider and her three colleagues handle around 73 tonnes of laundry annually at PSI’s in-house laundry facility. The team also runs the clothing and shoe storeroom, where all PSI employees can obtain the personal protective equipment they need for their work. In the laundry, clothing is professionally fitted, maintained and repaired when necessary, ensuring that all employees have access to clean, functional and safe workwear at all times.
The day care centre
Lino Bärtschi hands out wooden blocks, reads aloud, changes nappies, provides food and offers comfort. As an apprentice at the Nanolino day care centre, he is part of a team, divided into six groups, that looks after some 120 children. The PSI day care centre is open to infants and toddlers from three months of age. This service is used primarily by parents who work at PSI, but also by families who live in the area. The new, modern building opened in the summer of 2025, and in its playful garden landscape the little ones can play to their heart’s content thanks to a track for ride-on cars, a marble run, a sandpit and a water pump. Walks in the adjacent Würenlingen forest are also part of the children’s routine almost every day.
The library
Naturally, books play an important role for Stephanie Hofmann and the Lib4RI library team. However, the reference collection now makes up only a small part of what is on offer. Access to digital media is more important. There is also a small reading room for undisturbed work. The library helps PSI researchers to search through scientific literature and supports them in publishing their research results. A wide range of training courses are also available, covering topics such as the professional handling of research data, copyright and open access.
The restaurant
Preparing hot and cold dishes and beautifully presenting them is part of Remy Bonetta’s daily work. As an apprentice, he is one of 40 employees at the PSI staff restaurant Oase and the adjoining cafeteria. At lunchtime, between 11:30 and 13:30, PSI employees and visitors can enjoy daily changing menus and a buffet. PSI’s catering facilities also include another cafeteria in the eastern part of the campus as well as the restaurant Culinaare, with a coffee bar, to the west of the Aare River in Park Innovaare.
Das Museum
The museum
PSI also opens its doors to the public with its own museum, the PSI Visitor Center, where admission is free. Here Grégoire Saerens and his colleagues welcome visitors from Monday to Friday and on Sundays, from 13:00 to 17:00. The 13 interactive exhibits on display give visitors hands-on insight into the different kinds of research taking place at PSI. Visitors who register in advance can also book a free guided tour of the PSI grounds and get a glimpse inside one or more of the research facilities. A special visitor experience is available to school classes: having been registered by their teachers, around 200 classes each year can spend a day at the PSI iLab, where they can conduct their own experiments under expert guidance.
The gym
Side stretches, shoulder bridges, abdominal work. Reto Fortunati is an engineer at the PSI Center for Accelerator Science and Engineering, but during his lunch break, he regularly teaches Pilates in the sports hall on the PSI campus. His classes are open to the 750 members of the PSI Sports Club, which also offers badminton, football, climbing, dance, yoga and much more. The running group takes advantage of the extensive forests around PSI. Others meet to swim in the Aare River – the hardiest of them even brave it in winter.
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