Coffee Lectures present important databases, tools and concepts in an entertaining way and in just 10 minutes. Because you can only use what you know!
The Chemistry | Biology | Pharmacy Information Center began offering Coffee Lectures in December 2013, and by now more than 114 libraries have already adopted this format. Our Coffee Lectures take place in blocks of 3 weeks, always on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and always start at 1 pm sharp with free coffee or tea and chocolate. For each Coffee Lecture you will receive a Coffee Lecture Card summarizing the most important information. We will announce new series in our News, and you will also find the dates and topics in the Event Calendar (where you can also filter by Coffee Lectures).
Check out past Coffee Lectures on our YouTube Channel!
The current series
From February 24 to March 12, 2026, always Tuesday to Thursday, 13:00 - 13:10 at HCI G2 and under https://ethz.zoom.us/j/63020946312. Import the dates of the current series from our event calendar!
Ollama, LLMs on your device (No. 76)
Tuesday, 24.2.26, Presenter: Dr. Leo Betschart
Typically, we access the LLM of our choice as a chatbot in a browser. This is a problem for work with classified information like very personal, secret business or research data. Ollama offers the possibility to run a chatbot on your device. We show you how.
DataWarrior (No. 77)
Wednesday, 25.2.26, Presenter: Dr. Emmanuel Meyer
DataWarrior is an open-source program run locally for visualization and analysis of chemical and biological data. Molecular structures can be uploaded, their physico-chemical properties calculated, and structure-activity relationship tables analyzed. We also show how plots and charts can be created.
Circos (No. 78)
Thursday, 26.2.26, Presenter: Dr. Gina Cannarozzi
Circos visualizes data in a circular layout. Originally designed for comparative genomics, it can display complex relationships among diverse data and transform dense tables into beautiful, publication-quality figures.
VOSViewer (No. 66)
Tuesday, 3.3.26, Presenter: Dr. Leo Betschart
Do you want to find the key papers holding a field together or papers highly relevant across disciplines? Or learn something about connections among authors, journals, or subjects? Visual connections of papers as networks give new insights.
Markush (No. 79)
Wednesday, 4.3.26, Presenter: Dr. Emmanuel Meyer
Need to read a patent, assess prior art or infringement risks? This coffee lecture gives you the fundamentals you need to confidently search and interpret Markush structures.
Altmetric (No. 40)
Thursday, 5.3.26, Presenter: Dr. Leo Betschart
Have you ever noticed the colorful donuts visible on the websites ofsome publishers? These show how scientific papers are used and perceived outside of academic publications – in news outlets, social media, and blogs. It is a way to follow public discussion of your papers and your field.
FAIR Data (No. 80)
Tuesday, 10.3.26, Presenter: Dr. Emmanuel Meyer
Curious why everyone is talking about FAIR data? You’ll learn what Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable really mean and why they can make your research faster, more transparent, and more future-proof. Perfect for anyone who wants to build good data habits from the start.
Mercury (No. 31)
Wednesday, 11.3.26, Presenter: Dr. Maria Pechlaner
Mercury is a free software for 3D structure visualization of small molecules. It is suitable for structural analysis and for creation of publication quality images. We will show you how to display crystal packing, make measurements, and generate stunning graphics.
EndNote (No. 10)
Thursday, 12.3.26, Presenter: Dr. Jozica Dolenc
Literature management with EndNote is much more than inserting references into your text. Do you know that you can chat with the papers in your collection with the AI-powered EndNote Research Assistant? Get to know the new functionalities of EndNote 2025.