From May 12 to 16, the CTAO Consortium gathered for its spring meeting in Garching, Germany, uniting experts from across the globe to discuss scientific advances, plans, and collaborative opportunities. Hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP), this year’s meeting focused on discussing advances for the Observatory, in preparation for the CTAO’s upcoming Data Challenge and the release of its first observational data.
The meeting opened with a comprehensive update from representatives of the CTAO Central Organisation, which provided an overview of the organisation’s news after its transition early this year to an ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium), a milestone accompanied by rapid progress on the construction of the Observatory’s sites. During this session, the Central Organisation launched the Werner Hofmann Scientific Award, designed to recognise exceptional contributions from PhD fellows in the field. The award pays tribute to Werner Hofmann, who helped shape the vision of the Observatory and led the CTAO Consortium as its Spokesperson for more than 15 years.
As the week unfolded, attendees took part in lively discussions across the Consortium’s key science working groups. In addition, a series of invited talks brought external perspectives to the table:
Dr. Zhen Cao, spokesperson of the LHAASO experiment, shared the latest findings on PeVatrons—cosmic accelerators of ultra-high-energy particles in our Galaxy.
Dr. Marica Branchesi provided an insightful overview of the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA gravitational wave detectors, whose gravitational wave signals will be followed up by the CTAO to better understand the mechanisms behind these events.
Dr. Antoine Kouchner presented groundbreaking results from the KM3NeT neutrino telescope, which recently recorded the most energetic neutrino ever detected. Neutrinos and gamma rays are complementary messengers that can contribute to reveal the origin of the cosmic rays, one of the main targets of the CTAO.
These speakers, alongside CTAO experts Manuela Vecchi, Ulysses Barres de Almeida, and Masahiro Teshima, took part in a roundtable on Multi-Wavelength and Multi-Messenger astronomy, chaired by CTAO Project Scientist Roberta Zanin. The session underscored the importance of collaboration across observational platforms to unlock the secrets of the high-energy Universe.
One of the most symbolic moments of the week was the official handover of leadership within the Consortium. In a special session, Masahiro Teshima and Thierry Stolarczyk , the recently elected Spokesperson and Co-Spokesperson, were delighted to honour their predecessors Werner Hofmann and Rene Ong, and to reflect on the progress that has been made on the CTAO over the past ten years.
The CTAO Consortium is a global group of more than 1,500 experts in gamma-ray astronomy from 25 countries, who devised the CTAO concept more than a decade ago and have been the driving force behind its design. The spring meeting brought a week of insightful discussions, updates, and scientific engagement.