KM3NeT - Collaboration

Blog for posts about issues important for the KM3NeT collaboration such as collaboration meetings, social events, new member-institutes, new funding etc.

The KM3NeT Collaboration has elected a new Management Team!

13 December 2024 – During the last Collaboration meeting, the KM3NeT Collaboration has elected a new Management Team, who will serve for the two coming years. In addition to the new Institute Board Chair, prof Antoine Kouchner from UPCité, France elected last June, the following people will be leading the Collaboration as:

  • Spokesperson: Paul De Jong (Nikhef and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
  • Deputy Spokesperson: Damien Dornic (CPPM/CNRS, France)
  • Physics and Software Manager: Rosa Coniglione (INFN-LNS, Italy)
  • Technical Project Manager: Antonio D’Amico (Nikhef, The Netherlands)

The transition from the current to the new Management Team will happen at the next Collaboration meeting at the end of January, celebrated with presents and pictures! Stay tuned!

Curious about who are the people behind the researchers?  We asked them to share a few words about themselves!

 

Paul De Jong – Spokesperson:

“I studied Applied Physics at the Twente University of Technology in Enschede, the Netherlands, and did my PhD at Nikhef and at the University of Amsterdam in the ZEUS collaboration at the HERA collider at DESY in 1993, on calorimeter construction and reconstruction software, and measurement of the hadronic energy flow in first HERA data.

I was then a postdoc in the L3 Collaboration at LEP, first employed by MIT, later as a CERN fellow, on the commissioning of, and track reconstruction software for, the newly installed endcap muon chambers on the L3 magnet doors. I worked on the Z-line shape in dimuon decays and on W physics (triple gauge couplings and mass) at LEP 2. I returned to Nikhef in 1999 with a sponsored tenure-track position, joined D0 at the Tevatron (electron reconstruction and top physics) and ATLAS at the LHC, where I spent most time, in construction of the silicon strip detector endcaps and their commissioning, and in searches for supersymmetry in ATLAS data.

I got tenure at Nikhef in 2003, was appointed professor at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in 2008, and full professor in 2012; I served as the director of the (astro)particle physics division (IHEF) of the UvA Institute of Physics between 2015 and 2024, and as director of the full UvA Institute of Physics between 2017 and 2022. I have handed over the Nikhef KM3NeT group leadership to Dorothea Samtleben last year, and the directorship of IHEF to someone else this summer.

With KM3NeT we have embarked on an amazing project. It resonates with everyone I talk to, from the general public to students to people at funding agencies. We have employed more than 50 detection units and produced first results, and the discoveries coming not only show how well the detector works, but also how much there is still to explore in our field.”

Fun fact about Paul: He was member of the Particle Data Group where he co-authored several instances of the Review on Experimental SUSY Searches in the Particle Data Book!

 

Damien Dornic – Deputy Spokesperson:

 “I began my career as PhD student at the Pierre Auger Observatory before joining the ANTARES and KM3NeT collaborations in 2006, where I pursued two postdoctoral positions, first at CPPM in Marseille and then at IFIC in Valencia. In 2011, I was appointed a permanent research position at CNRS. During this period, I have acquired expertise in neutrino astronomy. I was coordinator of the multi-messenger analysis group in ANTARES between 2012 and 2017 and coordinator of the multi-messenger and transient analysis group in KM3NeT between 2017 and 2020. Between 2020 and 2025, I was the co-convener of the astronomy group of KM3NeT. I am also in charge of the implementation of the real-time analysis framework in KM3NeT. I have been a pioneer in the development of the neutrino follow-up program of ANTARES and have developed collaborations with plenty of international observatories.

 Fun fact about Damien: Beyond his work in neutrino astronomy, Damien is also involved in the construction of the ORCA detector, contributing to technical discussions and the integration of detection units!

 

Rosa Coniglione – Physics and Software Manager:


“In the first part of my career, I worked on experimental nuclear physics, spending many years developing and operating an apparatus to study heavy-ion collisions. A seminar at my institute opened up a new world for me: I was captivated by a new, at least for me, detector that employed particle physics technology to explore the cosmos. Inspired by this idea, I began my work with KM3NeT.

Since the inception of the Collaboration, I have dedicated all my time to KM3NeT. I contributed to the ARCA detector design through MC simulations and participated in the initial sensitivity estimates. For many years, I led the Astronomy group and oversaw data analysis since the early stages of the Collaboration (first for the prototype detection units and then during the initial phase of construction of the apparatus). I have served as the Deputy Spokesperson of the Collaboration for the past four years.”

Fun fact about Rosa: Despite being born in Sicily, she worked for many years in France before joining KM3NeT. She is as passionate about Paris as about neutrinos!

 

Antonio D’Amico – Technical Project Manager:

“My engagement with KM3NeT started in the early stages of the project and consisted of developing an optical transmission system for a future submarine neutrino detector. During the following 10 years, I was involved in the design of the various detector prototypes, along with their installation and commissioning.

Since 2011, I have been part of the design team of the optics work package, which I later coordinated from 2018 to 2022 as a member of the Project Steering Committee. During the same period, I have been responsible for the design, validation, procurement, installation, and commissioning of the optical transmission system of KM3NeT Phase 1.

Starting in 2019, the structure of the project coordination has been experiencing profound changes with the full establishment of the Project Office team, in which I was appointed as Project Control Officer (PCO) in 2022.”

Fun fact about Antonio: Antonio has been a member of KM3NeT since his master thesis, learning from, growing with and now leading the Collaboration!

KM3NeT welcomes newcomers at the 2024 Bootcamp

10 December 2024 – The KM3NeT Bootcamp 2024, held at the Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics – ECAP,  took place last week, bringing together 56 enthusiastic participants from around the world in a hybrid format. Over four engaging days, the attendees, guided by 18 expert teachers, dived into the fundamentals of KM3NeT, gaining insights into its core principles and tools.

The agenda included foundational sessions on the KM3NeT collaboration and detector principles, as well as hands-on workshops in software development, data acquisition, simulations, and calibration. Advanced topics covered astronomy, cosmic rays, neutrino oscillations, and the study of dark matter. Participants also explored tools for effective coding, data quality and computing strategies.

This event served as more than an introduction—it welcomed newcomers into the KM3NeT community, inspiring them to contribute to the future of science.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to ECAP for their exceptional organization and support in hosting this event.

Here’s to the next generation of cosmic explorers!

KM3NeT gathered online for its fall collaboration meeting

13 November 2024 – Last week , the KM3NeT Collaboration has met online for its fall meeting.

During the meeting, we reviewed the current status of data taking for both ARCA and ORCA detectors, discussed the advancements in their construction, the progresses in MC simulation and detector calibration, and outlined the plans for the ongoing data analyses.

It was also the occasion to celebrate our two last sea campaigns and thus the expanded configurations of the detectors, ARCA 33 and ORCA24. The deployment of new instrumentation on the ORCA site will allow for a precise monitoring of the detector position and water properties.

During the meeting Antoine Kouchner started his mandate as chairperson of the Institute Board, taking over from Uli Katz: with many thanks to Uli for all the work done in the past years, and good luck to Antoine for his new duty.

Also during the meeting, the process to elect the new Management Team of the Collaboration was started.

Finally, KM3NeT gave a heartfelt greeting to its new members. Juan Antonio Aguilar Sánchez of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and Elisa Bernardini of Padova University, Italy,  joined as Observers, while the team led by Arthur Ukleja from the University of Krakow, Poland, was endorsed as Full Member. 

A warm welcome to everyone!

It was great to see the advancements in the physics analyses as well as the simulation and calibration works, to discuss recent scientific advancements and to see the Collaboration continue to grow.

The next Collaboration Meeting is scheduled for January, in Belgium, at Louvain-la-Neuve.

The KM3NeT Collaboration reunited in Texel for its spring meeting

23 June 2024 – KM3NeT has met, in Texel (The Netherlands) and online, for its spring Collaboration meeting, hosted by NIOZ, the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.

The meeting brought together collaborators in order to review the status of the ongoing analyses, Monte Carlo simulations and calibration efforts, for both the ARCA and ORCA detectors, and prepare exciting contributions to the Neutrino 2024 Conference.

During the week, the progress of detector construction was discussed, celebrating the achievement of assembling the 1,500th DOM. Additionally, plans for upcoming sea campaigns were refined.

Furthermore, Antoine Kouchner has been elected chair of the KM3NeT Institute Board, taking over from Uli Katz. The full Collaboration joins in thanking Uli for his outstanding work and wishes the best of luck to Antoine for the incoming endeavors!

The meeting was also the opportunity to welcome the new members of the Collaboration. Both the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (Bonn, Germany) and the Khalifa University (United Arab Emirates) have been endorsed as Full Members, with Yuri Y. Kovalev and Satyendra Thoudam as PIs respectively.  Kristina Giesel from ECAP Erlangen (Germany) joined as a new Associated Member. Welcome to all of you!

It was wonderful to engage in fruitful discussions about recent scientific developments and to see the Collaboration continue to grow.

Thanks a lot to NIOZ for the hospitality and to the whole local team for the organization!

The next meeting is scheduled for late autumn in online mode.

An exciting Collaboration meeting in Bologna

5 March 2024 – The KM3NeT Collaboration met again, in Bologna and online, in February.

With so many data analyses ongoing, the meeting gave the opportunity to discuss a harvest of new results. As plans are being prepared for next massive sea campaigns to be performed for ARCA and ORCA this year, there was a lot to discuss also on the construction side.

During the meeting the recipients of the Giorgos Androulakis Prize, Agustín Sánchez Losa and Riccardo Bruno, were announced.

An application by UCLouvain to upgrade their membership from observer to full member was endorsed. Drexel University (Philadephia, US) and the University of Würzburg (Germany) were welcomed as observers, with the PIs Naoko Kurahashi Neilson and Sara Buson, respectively. Cássius Anderson Miquele de Melo from the Universidade Federal de Alfenas, Brasil joined as a new Associated Member. Welcome to all of you!

We also had some cheerful activities, with several colleagues participating in social games that lasted the full week. That was also an opportunity to meet new people from different institutes.

It was great to discuss of frontier science at the oldest University in Europe – many thanks to the local team for a superb organization!

The next Collaboration meeting will be in June in Texel, in the Netherlands.

 

Agustín Sánchez Losa and Riccardo Bruno awarded the Giorgos Androulakis Prize

5 March 2024 – During the recent KM3NeT collaboration meeting, in Bologna last month, the awardees of the second edition of the Giorgos Androulakis Prize were announced.

With the prize, KM3NeT recognises “exceptional contribution to the KM3NeT project that has a particularly high impact on the success or progress of KM3NeT”.

The prize is named after Giorgos Androulakis, the late KM3NeT Quality Manager, in order to commemorate Giorgos’ dedication to the project. The prize is awarded in two categories: Early-Career Scientists and Technicians & Engineers.

The winners of the second edition of the KM3NeT Giorgos Androulakis Prize are:

  • in the category Early Career Scientists: Agustín Sánchez Losa of IFIC, “for his long-standing, diverse and essential contributions to the KM3NeT detector calibration“
  • in the category Technicians and Engineers: Riccardo Bruno of INFN Catania, “for his dedicated, leading and vital contributions to the KM3NeT project, in particular in: setting up the software tool for functional and acceptance tests for WWRS DOMs; developing the White Rabbit system; construction of the WWRS DOM prototypes; his support of the integration teams producing WWRS DOMs“

Congratulations to Agustín and Riccardo! With many thanks for your dedication to KM3NeT.

The winners of the Giorgos Androulakis Prize, Agustín Sánchez Losa (left) and Riccardo Bruno (right), receiving the prize from the KM3NeT spokesperson, Paschal Coyle

A cheerful Collaboration meeting in Salerno

14 June 2023 – The KM3NeT Collaboration met in Salerno last week.

It was quite a busy week, during which the status of data taking and data analysis of ARCA and ORCA as well as the contributions to the ICRC 2023 were reviewed, the progress in detector construction was discussed (celebrating the remarkable result of the 1,100th built DOM!) and the plans for next sea campaigns were refined.

The Collaboration continues to grow, with a research team joining as observer from Institute of Experimental Physics in Kosice, Slovakia (team leader: Blahoslav Pastircak).

Many thanks to the organizing team in Salerno!

The next Collaboration meeting will be in October in Paris and will include a day dedicated to celebrating the success of ANTARES, the first-undersea neutrino telescope ever built, progenitor of KM3NeT.

The KM3NeT Collaboration met online

14 March 2023 – The KM3NeT Collaboration met online last week for the spring Collaboration meeting.

During the meeting we reviewed the status of data taking and data analysis of ARCA and ORCA, and discussed the progress in detector construction and the plans for next sea campaigns.

The Collaboration continues to grow: a research team has joined as full member of the Collaboration from University of Hull in UK (team leader: Brad Gibson) and a team from Ariel University in Israel (team leader: Dafne Guetta) has been welcomed as observer; furthermore, Marco Miceli of University of Palermo, Italy, has been accepted as associated member.

During the meeting the first-ever winners of the Giorgos Androulakis Prize, Tamás Gál and Edward Berbee, were announced.

The plan for next Collaboration meetings was also finalized. A decision of the KM3NeT Collaboration, meant to reduce the carboon footprint on the planet, is that at least one of the general Collaboration meetings is organized online per year. The next Collaboration meetings will take place in person, in early June in Salerno and in mid-October in Paris.

Tamás Gál and Edward Berbee awarded the Giorgos Androulakis Prize

9 March 2023 – During the Spring KM3NeT collaboration meeting, the first-ever winners of the Giorgos Androulakis Prize were announced.

With the prize, KM3NeT recognises “exceptional contribution to the KM3NeT project that has a particularly high impact on the success or progress of KM3NeT”.

The prize is named after Giorgos Androulakis, the late KM3NeT Quality Manager, in order to commemorate Giorgos’ dedication to the project. The prize is awarded in two categories: Early-Career Scientists and Technicians & Engineers.

The winners of the KM3NeT Giorgos Androulakis Prize are:

  • in the category Early Career Scientists: Tamás Gál of ECAP, “for his prominent role and numerous contributions in the development and maintenance of essential software tools for the Collaboration, like the KM3NeT GitLab server, wiki, elog and online monitoring system,  allowing the transformation of the KM3NeT software infrastructure into a modern software system; and for his continued dedication to provide documentation and support whenever  needed in the most helpful way”
  • in the category Technicians and Engineers: Edward Berbee of Nikhef, “for his incredible set of contributions to all mechanical aspects of KM3NeT, including design, construction and testing of DOMs, DUs, LOMs, his never ending work and tireless dedication to the experiment”

Congratulations to Tamás and Edward! With many thanks for your dedication to KM3NeT.

 

The winners of the Giorgos Androulakis Prize: Tamás Gál (left) and Edward Berbee (right).

A vibrant Collaboration meeting in Athens

27 May 2022 – Last week the KM3NeT Collaboration joined in Athens for an in-person Collaboration meeting. It was a long-awaited achievement, after two years of remote meetings.  Many thanks to our hosts at NCSR Demokritos for an excellent organisation!

The pleasure to be together again gave new impulse to all activities, and vibrant discussions took place about progress in construction of ARCA and ORCA, preparation of deployments campaigns and the latest methods and results of data analysis.

Besides the fact that we were extremely happy to meet in person again, we have also learned from the pandemic and our ZOOM-experience: With an eye on sustainability, family situations or other obligations, we also offered the possibility to join the meeting remotely. Which worked great!

Of course we also discussed about the war in Ukraine: With deep sadness for the horror which has been developing there for months now, the Collaboration decided to formally suspend all relationships with public institutions in Russia, including those institutes which had a status of observer institutes in the Collaboration. This won’t impact, though, on the solidarity and friendship with our colleagues in Russia, many of whom have openly stood up against the war, who will be therefore still welcome to participate in KM3NeT on a private basis.

During the meeting, the University of Georgia, which participates in KM3NeT with a team led by Kakhaber Tavzarashvili, changed its membership status from observer to member institute, and several colleagues from various institutes made their debut.

Finally, the meeting gave a good opportunity to refine the plans for the newly approved projects of KM3NeT Infradev-2, supported by EU, and the French project NEUMED.

What a feeling to take a nice Collaboration picture again!