Name: Zermatt Millimeter Telescope - Science and Technical Meeting
Start: 2026-10-11T00:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-10-13T18:00:00+02:00
Location: Swiss Polar Institute

Zermatt Millimeter Telescope - Science and Technical Meeting

from Sunday, 11 October 2026 (00:00) to Tuesday, 13 October 2026 (18:00)

Monday, 5 October 2026
Tuesday, 6 October 2026
Wednesday, 7 October 2026
Thursday, 8 October 2026
Friday, 9 October 2026
Saturday, 10 October 2026
Sunday, 11 October 2026

09:00 Sunday All Day: Gornergrat site meeting
Gornergrat site meeting
09:00 - 18:00

Monday, 12 October 2026

10:00 Welcome & Registration
Welcome & Registration
10:00 - 10:30
10:30 Monday morning: Opening Session
Opening Session
10:30 - 12:40
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

10:30 Opening and Welcome - Jean-Paul Kneib (EPFL)

10:35 Welcome by Swiss Polar Institute - Chiara Bartolini (Swiss Polar Institute (SPI))

10:40 History of Astronomy in Gornergrat Switzerland - Timm-Emanuel Riesen (Universität Bern, Center for Space & Habitability)

11:00 Science and Discoveries with the Event Horizon Telescope - Chin-Shin Chang (University of Geneva)

11:20 Introduction to ngEHT - Shep Doeleman (Harvard)

11:40 The Swiss mm Dish - Mark Sargent (EPFL/LASTRO)

11:55 Outreach - Builing a communication and community strategy - Tanya Petersen (EPFL - SKACH)

12:10 Open Discussion
12:40 Lunch (on your own, at your expense) + Group photo
Lunch (on your own, at your expense) + Group photo
12:40 - 14:00
14:00 Monday afternoon: mm Science - Lessons from other mm Facilities
mm Science - Lessons from other mm Facilities
14:00 - 15:40
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

14:00 The Global mm-VLBI Array in the Next Generation of Millimetre VLBI - Eduardo Ros (MPI für Radioastronomie)

14:20 Operating a large telescope in a high-mountain environment: the case of the IRAM 30-meter telescope - Miguel Sánchez-Portal (Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique - IRAM)

14:40 The Wetterstein Millimeter Telescope: A Few Hundred Megalambdas Northeast of Zermatt - Jompoj Wongphechauxsorn (JMU Würzburg)

15:00 AMT Science - Heino Falcke (Radboud University)
15:40 Coffee break
Coffee break
15:40 - 16:00
16:00 Monday afternoon: mm Science - Lessons from other mm Facilities (continued)
mm Science - Lessons from other mm Facilities (continued)
16:00 - 16:50
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

16:00 Presentation of JIVE - Bob Campbell (Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE)) Marjolein Verkouter (Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE))

16:10 Optimizing the scientific impact of mid-class millimetre-wavelength telescopes - Andrei P. Lobanov (MPI für Radioastronomie)

16:30 Protecting Radio Astronomy in the Era of LEO Constellations - Axel Murk (University of Bern)
16:50 Monday afternoon: mm Science - Future Swiss Science interests
mm Science - Future Swiss Science interests
16:50 - 17:30
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

16:50 Black hole lightning - Andrii Neronov (EPFL)

17:10 Probing Persistent and Transient Massive Black Hole Accretion at Millimeter Wavelengths - Claudio Ricci (University of Geneva)
17:30 Stretch & Refresh
Stretch & Refresh
17:30 - 17:40
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
17:40 Monday afternoon: mm Science - Future Swiss Science interests (continued)
mm Science - Future Swiss Science interests (continued)
17:40 - 18:50
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

17:40 Solar flares at mm wavelengths - Säm Krucker (FHNW)

17:55 Unveiling magnetic origins of solar activity using mm/submm and optical observations - Svetlana Berdyugina (IRSOL / USI)

18:10 Global Geodetic VLBI, Swiss Contributions, and the Geodetic Potential of the Zermatt Millimeter Telescope - David Schunck (ETH Zurich)

18:30 Composition of the atmopsheres of icy moons - Peter Wurz
19:00 Welcome Apero
Welcome Apero
19:00 - 21:30
Room: 3rd Floor
Tuesday, 13 October 2026

08:15 Welcome coffee
Welcome coffee
08:15 - 08:30
08:30 Tuesday morning: Instrumentation
Instrumentation
08:30 - 10:35
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

08:30 Presentation of HES-SO Valais-Wallis - Gabriel Paciotti (HES-SO)

08:40 mtex Design - Tobias Will (mtex antenna technology GmbH)

09:10 The NOEMA Antenna and its Instrumentation - Karl Schuster (IRAM Grenoble)

09:40 Metrology Lessons from HIRAX: Possible Applications for ZMT - Jennifer Studer (ETHZ)

09:55 AMT receiver design process - Michael Janssen (Radboud University)

10:15 ngEHT Instrumentation - Garret Fitzpatrick (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian)
10:35 Coffee Break
Coffee Break
10:35 - 11:00
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
11:00 Tuesday morning: Instrumentation (continued)
Instrumentation (continued)
11:00 - 11:20
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

11:00 Atmospheric Characterization for Radio Astronomy Site Testing: Microwave and Infrared Measurements - Catalina Medina (Universitat Bern)
11:20 Tuesday morning: Open Discussion on mm facility and operations
Open Discussion on mm facility and operations
11:20 - 12:40
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

11:20 TEA, science cases and capabilities of the first new ngEHT station - José L. Gomez (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC)
12:40 Lunch (on your own, at your expense)
Lunch (on your own, at your expense)
12:40 - 14:00

14:00 Tuesday afternoon: Computing Panel
Tuesday afternoon: Computing Panel
14:00 - 15:00
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor

15:00 End of Conference
End of Conference
15:00 - 15:10
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
15:15 Tuesday afternoon: Swiss Science Community Whitepaper Workshop
Swiss Science Community Whitepaper Workshop
15:15 - 17:00
Room: SPI Library “Reading Room”, 3rd Floor
Contributions

15:15 Zermatt Millimeter Telescope - As a redshift machine? - Dessauges-Zavadsky Miroslava (University of Geneva)
17:00 Closing remarks
Closing remarks
17:00 - 17:10