New leadership team to guide the Einstein Telescope Collaboration at a defining moment for gravitational-wave science

18.03.2026

The Einstein Telescope Collaboration has appointed a new spokesperson team, Prof Michele Maggiore and Dr Angélique Lartaux, effective 23 March 2026. They succeed the outgoing team, Michele Punturo and Harald Lück, who have laid the foundations for Europe’s next-generation gravitational-wave observatory. The transition comes at a pivotal stage as the project moves closer to realisation.

The international Einstein Telescope (ET) Collaboration today announces a change in its scientific leadership, as a new spokesperson team takes office on 23 March 2026. Professor Michele Maggiore and Dr Angélique Lartaux will serve jointly as spokesperson and deputy spokesperson, succeeding Michele Punturo and Harald Lück. Together, the new team will guide the collaboration through its next phase at a time when key decisions on the realisation of the Einstein Telescope are approaching.

The Einstein Telescope, Europe’s next-generation observatory for gravitational-wave detection, brings together more than 2,000 scientists from over 90 research units in more than 30 countries and represents an estimated €2 billion investment. Gravitational waves—tiny ripples in spacetime produced by events such as the collision of black holes or neutron stars—are rapidly becoming one of the most powerful tools in modern astrophysics.

The incoming spokesperson team combines extensive scientific leadership and deep involvement in the collaboration. Professor Michele Maggiore (University of Geneva) has contributed to the strategic and scientific development of the project through roles in the Executive Board and as co-chair of the Observational Science Board. Dr Angélique Lartaux (IJCLab – Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie) brings further expertise and long-standing engagement within the ET community. Together, they will represent and coordinate the international collaboration as a closely integrated leadership team.

For more than a decade, the outgoing leadership team, Michele Punturo and Harald Lück, have played key roles in shaping the vision, structure and global community behind the Einstein Telescope – a third-generation gravitational-wave observatory designed to explore some of the most profound questions about the Universe.

Long before the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015, the outgoing team started the first discussions on a next-next-generation observatory back in 2004. In 2005, the Perugia ET exploratory workshop, funded by the European Science Foundation, served as the kick-off meeting for preparing the ET design study proposal. Punturo and Lück initiated and coordinated discussions across the scientific community on the future of gravitational-wave research, addressing challenges in science, technology, data analysis and collaboration. They established the first Einstein Telescope community, developed early design concepts for a next-generation observatory, and secured funding for foundational studies.

A defining feature of their leadership was the strong involvement of early-career researchers. PhD students and postdoctoral scientists were actively encouraged to contribute to shaping the project—many of whom now hold leading positions in academia and industry worldwide and continue to be part of the ET community.

Building on earlier milestones, including the 2011 design study that outlined a detector far more sensitive than existing instruments, their work has transformed the Einstein Telescope from an initial concept into a mature, globally recognised scientific endeavour.

The future Einstein Telescope will be capable of detecting up to a thousand times more gravitational-wave signals than current detectors such as Virgo (Italy) and LIGO (United States). It is planned to be built 200 to 300 metres underground, with arms 10 to 15 kilometres long, reducing environmental disturbances and enabling unprecedented sensitivity. Three candidate regions are currently under consideration: Sardinia; the border region between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany; and Saxony. The observatory could be realised at a single site or distributed across two locations.

By continuously monitoring minute changes in the length of its interferometer arms—variations a million of times smaller than the diameter of an atomic nucleus—the Einstein Telescope will allow scientists to study cosmic events with extraordinary precision and to probe previously inaccessible epochs of the Universe.

Today, the international ET Collaboration is a strong and well-connected network of researchers and institutions across Europe and beyond. The new spokesperson team takes over at a particularly exciting time, as the project moves closer to realisation and towards becoming a cornerstone of future gravitational-wave astronomy.

Quotes

Michele Punturo, outgoing spokesperson and research director at the INFN Perugia division, Italy: “I am proud to have been part of this extraordinary journey from the very beginning. Together with colleagues across Europe and around the world, we have built not only a scientific vision but a vibrant and committed community. It is especially rewarding to see a new leadership team take over at such an important stage for the Einstein Telescope.”

Harald Lück, outgoing deputy spokesperson and lead scientist at the Leibniz University Hannover and at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute, AEI) in Hannover, Germany: “I feel privileged to have contributed to building the foundations of the Einstein Telescope together with this remarkable community—from the earliest ideas to the vibrant and strong international collaboration we see today. As the project now enters a decisive and exciting new phase, I am confident that the new team will lead it successfully all the way to realisation.”

The incoming spokesperson team, Michele Maggiore and Angélique Lartaux:
“It is an honour to take on this responsibility together at such a pivotal moment for the Einstein Telescope. Building on the remarkable work of our predecessors, we look forward to working closely with the international community to realise this unique observatory and to unlock new insights into our Universe.”

Background

The Einstein Telescope is a proposed third-generation gravitational-wave observatory that will significantly surpass the sensitivity of current detectors. By measuring tiny distortions in space-time caused by cosmic events, it will open a new era of precision gravitational-wave astronomy and deepen our understanding of fundamental physics, astrophysics and cosmology.

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Media contact for the Einstein Telescope Scientific Collaboration
Susanne Milde
Milde Science Communications
Email: milde(at)mildemarketing.de
Phone: +49 172 3931349