The Einstein Telescope Collaboration has elected Michele Maggiore, professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, as its Spokesperson, and Angélique Lartaux, researcher at the Laboratoire de physique des 2 infinities Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab), France, as Deputy Spokesperson. The Spokesperson and Deputy Spokesperson play a key role in representing the scientific community and helping guide its research work and strategy, together with the Collaboration’s governing bodies.
The Einstein Telescope (ET) project is now entering a decisive phase, marked by major scientific, technical, and organizational challenges that will shape its future. The mandate of Maggiore and Lartaux, which will last three years, therefore comes at a crucial moment for the Collaboration, as the ET project moves toward key decisions regarding detector design, site selection, and the next phase of technical development.
«We are honoured by the trust placed in us by the Collaboration», says Michele Maggiore. «Einstein Telescope is entering a decisive phase, in which the Collaboration must help inform major choices on detector geometry, site selection and the transition from the preliminary Technical Design Report to a full Technical Design Report. Our priority will be to ensure that these steps are guided by the highest standards of scientific correctness, transparency and technical ambition».
In recent years, the Einstein Telescope Collaboration has grown rapidly and now includes over 2,000 members organized into 97 research units across 34 countries.
«Einstein Telescope is, above all, a collective scientific adventure built by a diverse and dedicated community», says Angélique Lartaux. «I am particularly committed to helping ensure that this community remains welcoming, and that early-career researchers find in ET a place where they can contribute, grow and thrive scientifically».
Maggiore and Lartaux succeed Michele Punturo, researcher at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), and Harald Lück, researcher at Leibniz University Hannover and the Max Planck Society, Germany, who led the Einstein Telescope Collaboration since 2023.
«My warmest wishes go to Michele and Angélique for their work, along with my full support for the progress of the ET project», says Michele Punturo. «The Collaboration has grown tremendously from its early embryonic idea back in 2004: it first formed as a community and then as a full scientific collaboration, with its rules and governing bodies. I am proud of what Harald Lück, many colleagues, and I have built together, and I am confident that the new leadership will develop, on this foundation, a leading scientific experiment in gravitational-wave research».
Michele Maggiore is a theoretical physicist with extensive experience in gravitational-wave science. Since 2020, he has served as co-chair of the Einstein Telescope Observational Science Board, co-coordinated The Science of the Einstein Telescope Blue Book, and has been a member of the Steering Committee and, since 2019, of the Executive Board. He also created and led the Geneva research group in Switzerland.
Angélique Lartaux is an instrumentalist with experience in gravitational-wave experiments since the mid-2010s. She has served as co-chair of the Squeezed Light Working Group since 2025, contributed to the preliminary Detector Technical Design Report, and has led the IJCLab research unit in France since 2022. She is also a member of the ET Early Career Support Committee, a role she has held since 2024, reflecting a strong commitment to supporting the next generation of scientists within the Collaboration.