Swiss celebrate SKAO membership at Davos

BY ANIM VAN WYK (SKAO)

Switzerland marked its membership in the SKA Observatory at the World Economic Forum in Davos in May.

The SKAO Council Chair, Dr Catherine Cesarsky, and Director-General, Prof. Philip Diamond, discussed the advantages that membership in the world’s largest and most ambitious radio astronomy collaboration holds. They were joined by others who played a crucial role in getting Switzerland on board, including Martina Hirayama, State Secretary of the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI), Prof. Martin Vetterli, president of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib, Swiss scientific delegate to the SKAO Council.

Switzerland became the SKAO’s eighth member after the country’s Federal Council approved its membership in December 2021. Their nod followed the Swiss Parliament’s decision to commit 33.6 million CHF (~€34 million) towards the construction of the SKA telescopes and their operation until 2030.

Swiss experts – from academic institutions, industry, and technical partners – will assist in delivering advanced receivers for dish antennas, precision timing, automation, and signal processing. The SKAO has already awarded a contract to Swiss company Cosylab to help build the software for its transformational telescopes. In exchange, Switzerland will gain access to the vast trove of data (~710 PBytes/year) that will be generated by the SKA telescopes. These scientific products will help advance fundamental research as outlined in a 2020 whitepaper by the Swiss astrophysics community. To make this possible, Switzerland plans to further contribute to the development of the European SKA Regional Centre (SRC). The SRC’s Swiss branch will provide the data interface for the country’s scientists.

Since gaining membership, Switzerland’s involvement has been organised through a strong consortium of research institutions*, called SKACH, in part funded by SERI. Before that, EPFL led the effort on behalf of the Swiss community, notably through EPFL’s membership in the SKA Organisation, precursor to the SKAO.

* The SKACH consortium includes: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW), Universität Zürich (UZH), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ), Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW), Universität Basel (UniBAS), Université de Genève (UniGE), Haute École spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (HES-SO), Centro Svizzero di Calcolo Scientifico (CSCS).

”Switzerland joins the SKAO” event, hosted at the House of Switzerland in Davos during the World Economic Forum.

SKAO

the SKACH logo

SKACH