Maximizing Science Impact of the European Extremely Large Telescope
Sunday to Saturday, June 15 — 21, 2025
Schloss Ringberg, Bavaria, Germany
Update 10 June 2025
Please find here the:
- Updated Workshop Program and Poster Presentations
- Suggestions of activities for Wednesday afternoon
- Participants List
Update 30 May 2025
Please find here the:
Registration form
Please fill in the registration form and return by May 20, 2025 by mail to ringberg"at"mpe.mpg.de.
This form is to confirm definitively your attendance and presentation title, and provide us with the information necessary to finalize the logistics and scientific program. Once we have your form, we will make hotel or castle room reservations. Please be aware that it will not be possible to lodge all participants at Ringberg Castle. Please also use the "Comments" field on the registration form to make us aware of any special constraints.
Quick links to:
- Workshop Fee
- Workshop Location and Time
- Travel to Munich Area and Ringberg
- Agenda and Social Events
- Posters
- Meals and Lodging
Aim of the Workshop
At the turn of this decade, the European Extremely Large Telescope will bring an order-of-magnitude gain in angular resolution and sensitivity, surpassing all existing optical/near-IR facilities. Its instruments coupled with the most advanced adaptive optics systems, such as the MICADO imager and spectrograph with MORFEO for AO, will reveal the Universe near and far in the sharpest details ever. On a similar timescale, novel highly complementary instruments such as MAVIS will also start operations at the Very Large Telescope.
In parallel to these ongoing experimental projects, many areas of astrophysics are currently undergoing dramatic advances driven by the latest generation of instruments at major ground-/space-based observatories, notably with the VLT/ERIS integral field spectrograph and imager, VLT/GRAVITY+ near-IR interferometer, IRAM/NOEMA-12 mm interferometer, and the James Webb Space Telescope. We are now able to follow the growth of galaxies and supermassive black holes continuously over more than 95% of the Universe's history, reaching out to the first few 100 million years after the Big Bang. New discoveries are opening up new opportunities for the sharp and sensitive eye of the ELT and bring us closer than ever to elucidate the fundamental processes driving the emergence of galactic structure, the feeding and feedback of SMBHs, and the formation of the first stars, galaxies, and black holes.
With the rapidly re-shaping scientific landscape in galaxy and black hole evolution and just a few years to go until ELT first light, 2025 is an exciting time to come together to discuss most recent advances and prospects in these fields, with an emphasis on science in the ELT era. In this light, the workshop will be an opportunity to brainstorm on strategies to achieve the most impactful programs into the next decade, sharpen top scientific priorities, and leverage key synergies from the novel observational capabilities and across facilities to answer the Big Questions.
Given the limited attendance, the workshop is *by invitation only*.
| International SOC | -------- | Local SOC | LOC | ||||
| Giovanni Cresci | Richard Davies | Benjamin Herfert | Heike Winter | ||||
| Richard McDermid | Natascha M. Förster Schreiber | Capucine Barféty | Yixian Cao | ||||
| Roberto Maiolino | Linda J. Tacconi | Jianhang Chen | Juan Espejo | ||||
| Pascal Oesch | Stefan Gillessen | Jean-Baptiste Jolly | Lilian Lee | ||||
| Alvio Renzini | Eckhard Sturm | Stavros Pastras | Claudia Pulsoni | ||||
| Giulia Tozzi |
Workshop Fee
The workshop fee of 300 EUR will be payable in cash at on-site registration on Sunday evening, June 15. It will cover all lodging, meals, coffee breaks, and hotel shuttling during the meeting, and conference materials. Please note that we cannot take payment by credit card and there is no ATM at the castle, so please come to Ringberg with sufficient Euros to cover this fee.
Workshop Location and Time
The venue is Schloss Ringberg (Ringberg Castle), a turn of the century castle located in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps and overlooking the Tegernsee. Located about 70 km south of Munich, the Tegernsee is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and small resort villages. The peaceful location, meeting schedule, and attendance limit of 65 set by the size of the lecture hall are all conducive to an informal workshop atmosphere offering many opportunities for stimulating discussion.
Arrival of participants at Ringberg Castle is planned on Sunday, 15 June, late afternoon; check-in at the castle and hotels nearby is possible from 16h00 on.
Departure from Ringberg will be on Saturday, 21 June, around 09h00 after breakfast.
The scientific program will begin on Monday morning, June 16, at 09h00, and will end on Friday, afternoon, June 20, around 17h00.
Travel to Munich Area and Ringberg
Detailed travel instructions are given here.
By Air: The Munich Franz-Josef Strauss Airport (MUC) lies approximately 30 km and 100 km north of Munich and Ringberg, respectively. Most major carriers offer service to Munich. From the airport, Munich and the train Central Station can be reached via the S-Bahn lines S1 or S8; follow the signs for "S-Bahn" or "Train" within the airport, as the S-Bahn station is located between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
By Train: Munich Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) can be reached from anywhere within Europe. From the station, there are good public transportation connections to all of Munich, as well as to the area around Schloss Ringberg. The station nearest Ringberg is Tegernsee, reachable with the Bayerische Oberlandbahn BOB, from where Ringberg is a short taxi ride away.
By Car: Schloss Ringberg is located about 70 km south-east of Munich. All major car rental companies have branches at the Munich Airport. There is ample parking space at the castle, and at the nearby hotels.
Workshop Agenda and Social Events
The preliminary scientific schedule will be posted soon on this website.
There will be a light welcome buffet with beer at Ringberg Castle on the evening of Sunday, June 15, for all participants and accompanying persons. On-site registration and fee payment will take place at the castle prior to the buffet.
We are planning the famous Bavarian Buffet on Wednesday evening, with an amazing variety of local specialties, suited to all dietary requirements.
Posters
Poster boards of size 125cm*125cm will be available at Ringberg near the coffee break area. In addition to those of you scheduled to present posters, we encourage all participants to bring along a poster or hand-out with newest or additional results. Please inform us in advance if you plan to bring a poster display, to assist us in planning. Posters will be on display for the entire workshop duration.
Meals and Lodging
The LOC will cover the majority of the costs for lodging and meals of participants for the duration of the workshop.
We will arrange that everyone stays either at Ringberg Castle (which has rooms for 40-50 people) or at one of the hotels in nearby villages. Due to limited recreational facilities up at Schloss Ringberg, participants traveling with accompanying persons and/or families are strongly recommended to stay in a hotel. For those staying in hotels, daily transportation to/from the castle (about a 10 minute drive) will be provided by the LOC in the morning and evening. Please indicate on the registration form whether you prefer to stay at the castle or at one of the pre-booked hotels. We will try as much as possible to adhere to people's wishes for lodging, but it may not be possible for everyone to have their first choice.
Lunch and dinner are provided for all participants at Ringberg Castle; breakfast is provided at the castle or nearby hotels depending on where participants stay. Vegetarian meals and other special dietary requests are happily accomodated provided advance notice is given. Please indicate your dietary requirements when filling in the registration form.
Unfortunately, we cannot pay for meals and lodging for accompanying guests, but they are of course very welcome to join the meals at Ringberg. Please send us an email asking about rates in this case.