Dr. Benjamin Ambühl, Ph.D.

Work at ZHAW

Position

Postdoctoral Researcher

Focus

behaviour change, psychological ownership, habit, human-technology interaction, cybersecurity, sustainability, psychology of the commons, organizational change, community-based participatory action research (CBPAR)

Experience

• Research Associate / Lecturer
  University of Bern
  08 / 2022 - 01 / 2023
• PhD
  Eawag / University of Bern
  07 / 2018 - 07 / 2022
• Graduate Research Assistant
  Eawag
  01 / 2018 - 06 / 2018

Education and Continuing education

Education

• System Thinking (Professional Certificate)
  MIT, USA
  09 / 2022 - 12 / 2022
• Ph.D.
  University of Bern, Switzerland
  07 / 2018 - 07 / 2022
• Advanced Quantitative Methods (Summer School)
  University of Oxford, UK
  07 / 2019 - 08 / 2019
• M.Sc.
  University of Bern, Switzerland
  02 / 2017 - 06 / 2018

Network

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2350-970X

Social media

LinkedIn

Projects

• Cyber Resilience Network For The Canton Of Zurich / Team member / ongoing
• Cybersecurity Awareness-Measurement @ ZHAW / Co-project leader / completed
• TikTok privacy behaviour of Swiss young people / Team member / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Geppert, T., Dudas, T., Frei, P., Knieps, M., Ambuehl, B., Schaltegger, T., Rennhard, M., & Ebert, N. (2026). CYRENZH Cybersecurity Clinic : Konzept und Erkenntnisse. HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik. https://doi.org/10.1365/s40702-026-01250-7
• Ebert, N., Schaltegger, T., Ambuehl, B., Geppert, T., Trammell, A., Knieps, M., & Zimmermann, V. (2025). Learning from safety science : designing incident reporting systems in cybersecurity. Journal of Cybersecurity, 11(1), tyaf019. https://doi.org/10.1093/cybsec/tyaf019
• Schaltegger, T., Ambuehl, B., Bosshart, N., Bearth, A., & Ebert, N. (2025). Human behavior in cybersecurity : an opportunity for risk research. Journal of Risk Research, 28(8), 843–854. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2025.2539109
• Zimmermann, V., Schöni, L., Schaltegger, T., Ambuehl, B., Knieps, M., & Ebert, N. (2024). Human-centered cybersecurity revisited : from enemies to partners. Communications of the ACM, 67(11), 72–81. https://doi.org/10.1145/3665665
• Ebert, N., Schaltegger, T., Ambühl, B., Schöni, L., Zimmermann, V., & Knieps, M. (2023). Learning from safety science : a way forward for studying cybersecurity incidents in organizations. Computers & Security, 134(103435). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2023.103435
• Andriessen, N., Appiah-Effah, E., Browne, S. J. I., al Jahjah, R., Kabika, J., Kinobe, J. R., Korir, N., Nishimwe, P., Niwagaba, C. B., Pradeep, R., Prasad, P., Tembo, J. M., William, A., Ambühl, B., & Strande, L. (2023). Quantities and qualities of fecal sludge : experiences from field implementation with a Volaser in 7 countries during a pandemic. Frontiers in Water, 5(1130081). https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2023.1130081
• Ambühl, B., Kunwar, B. M., Schertenleib, A., Marks, S. J., & Inauen, J. (2022). Can participation promote psychological ownership of a shared resource? : an intervention study of community-based safe water infrastructure. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81(101818). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101818
• Ambühl, B., & Inauen, J. (2022). Contextualized measurement scale adaptation : a 4-step tutorial for health psychology research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12775. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912775
• Ambühl, B., Tomberge, V. M. J., Kunwar, B. M., Schertenleib, A., Marks, S. J., & Inauen, J. (2021). The role of psychological ownership in safe water management : a mixed-methods study in Nepal. Water, 13(5), 589. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050589

Books, peer-reviewed

Ambühl, B. (2022). The role of psychological ownership in community-based piped water supply infrastructure in Nepal and India [Doctoral dissertation, Universität Bern]. https://doi.org/10.48549/3748

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

• Schaltegger, T., Ambuehl, B., Geppert, T., & Ebert, N. (2025). Understanding the critical role of expert intuition in cyber incident response [Conference paper]. ICIS 2025 Proceedings, 5. https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/cyb_security/cyb_security/5
• Ebert, N., Geppert, T., Knieps, M., Zarouali, B., Schaltegger, T., Wiedemann, A., & Ambuehl, B. (2024, May 3). Reflective data sharing on TikTok : encouraging adolescents to engage with privacy settings. ECIS 2024 Proceedings. https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2024/track24_socialmedia/track24_socialmedia/5/
• Schaltegger, T., Ambuehl, B., Ackermann, K. A., & Ebert, N. (2024). Re-thinking decision-making in cybersecurity : leveraging cognitive heuristics in situations of uncertainty [Conference paper]. Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 4734–4743. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-30548

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