The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) is a world-leading institute in global health with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries. Associated with the University of Basel, Swiss TPH combines research, education and services at local, national and international levels. 950 people from 95 nations work at Swiss TPH focusing on infectious and non-communicable diseases, environment, society and health as well as health systems and interventions.

The Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH) investigates distribution and causes of infections and non-communicable diseases. To understand and promote the well-being of people in different cultural and environmental contexts, EPH applies various methods ranging from anthropology and social science to biostatistics and mathematical modelling as well as observational cohorts with biobanks.

We offer an opportunity for an internship or MSc project in the Environmental Exposures and Health (EEH) Unit (https://www.swisstph.ch/en/about/eph/environmental-exposures-and-health) within the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH). The researchers in the EEH unit develop and integrate novels tools and methods to investigate the health effects of a wide range of environmental exposures. These include transportation noise, ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation, ambient and indoor air pollution, environmental tobacco exposure, pesticides and climate change including heat waves.

Internship or MSc Project (80-100%) for 4-6 months

The overall objective of this internship is to contribute to the development of a Swiss 5G monitoring concept in everyday environments and conduct pilot/feasibility measurements.

5G is becoming the main mobile phone technology used by the population, but its exposure assessment remains challenging. Swiss TPH is part of the SwissNIS consortium, which aims to monitor the exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) of the Swiss population as mandated by the Federal Office for the Environment. This monitoring includes EMF measurements in everyday environments (outdoor and indoor areas, public transport) generated by mobile phone antennas (3G – 5G). However, this monitoring needs some adaptation to consider new features of 5G technology such as beam forming and time division duplex of up and downlink. The main aim of this internship or MSc thesis is to develop and test new methods for collecting exposure data representative for the population.

Optional and depending on the interest of the candidate, the project may be adapted to include epidemiological analysis in HERMES (Health Effects Related to Mobile phone usE in adolescentS) study, or data analysis such as comparing mobile phone operator data with personal EMF measurements.

Meet our diverse staff members

In their native language, Swiss TPH employees talk about what motivates them in their daily work.