Dear colleagues,
We would like to invite you to the workshop on “Miniature Orbiting oPtical Atomic Clock (MOPAC)”, taking place on 11 November 2026 at ETH Zurich, with an online participation option.
Recent advances in integrated photonics make it realistic to consider small optical atomic clocks as a payload for satellite gravimetry, exploiting the gravitational red-shift as a measurement quantity. This workshop aims to bring the atomic clock and satellite gravimetry communities together and to discuss the mid- and long-term perspectives of this measurement concept – both the technological challenges and the scientific applications.
The format is discussion-oriented: keynote talks in the first half, structured breakout discussions in the second. Critical perspectives are explicitly welcome.
When? November 11, 2026, 13:00-17:00 CET
Where? ETH Zurich, Switzerland. A hybrid option will be offered.
Who? We invite experts in the fields of geodesy, satellite gravimetry and atomic clocks.
Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdaJzbfF4ETjIKcgj2IkQYv9SiJ_VW74CtT4B_ONyB1AJGI1w/viewform
Free of charge, please register by 4 November 2026. In case you cannot attend but would like to receive updates from us about this topic and future developments, please fill out the registration form accordingly.
Keynote speakers:
- Jürgen Müller (Leibniz University Hannover)
- Moritz Dähmlow (ZARM, University of Bremen)
- Jonathan Home (ETH Zurich)
- Piet O. Schmidt (PTB Braunschweig / Leibniz University Hannover)
- Fabien Droz (Rolex Quantum SA)
MOPAC is a joint initiative of ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), working towards a demonstrator mission with a small SWaP-C optical atomic clock as its main payload.
The full invitation is attached and available here: https://polybox.ethz.ch/index.php/s/nS5fnAcD2BLF6y5. For questions, please contact Benedikt Soja via .
Best regards,
Benedikt Soja, Katrin Bentel, Betty Heller-Kaikov, Michael Gschweitl, Cornelius Hempel
