AiLoV‑ET (Advanced Optics Lab @ Tor Vergata for Einstein Telescope) is the new laboratory dedicated to developing technologies for next‑generation gravitational‑wave detectors, built in the PP1 building of the School of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
The infrastructure is the result of a collaboration between INFN and the University of Rome Tor Vergata within the PNRR ETIC project (Einstein Telescope Infrastructure Consortium).
ETIC supports Italy’s bid to host the Einstein Telescope (ET) at the Sardinian site of Sos Enattos and, through a network of laboratories of which AiLoV‑ET is a part, develops the enabling technologies required for its construction.
The new laboratory is an internationally relevant research hub focused on creating technological solutions related to adaptive optics and the search for new materials for the detector mirrors—crucial topics for achieving ET’s ambitious scientific goals.
AiLoV‑ET’s activity is part of a long-standing gravitational‑wave research tradition at Tor Vergata, active for over forty years, from the first cryogenic bar detectors to large ground-based interferometers, and now to current developments toward the Einstein Telescope.
The event will take place on Thursday, 19 February 2026, at 9:30 AM, in the presence of political, academic, and scientific authorities, including the Rector of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Nathan Levialdi Ghiron, and the INFN President Antonio Zoccoli.
Starting from 10:00 AM, presentations will follow on the history, the current state, and the future prospects of gravitational‑wave research, with contributions from Renato Baciocchi (Vice-Rector for Technology Transfer – University of Rome Tor Vergata), Eugenio Coccia (Director, Institute for High-Energy Physics – Barcelona), Viviana Fafone (Head of the AiLoV‑ET Laboratory – University of Rome Tor Vergata), Michele Maggiore (ET Executive Board – University of Geneva), Marco Pallavicini (Vice-President, National Institute for Nuclear Physics), and Michele Punturo (ET Spokesperson – INFN).
