About us
The Astronomy Department
The Astronomy Department is located at the site of Sauverny (town of Versoix, Canton of Geneva), where the buildings of the Astronomy Department of the University of Geneva (Geneva Observatory) and the "EPFL Laboratory of Astrophysics" are set up.
These two institutes work closely together at the scientific level and constitute the main gravity centre for astrophysics in French-speaking Switzerland as far as teaching, research and the service to the public are concerned.
The ISDC (Integral Science Data Centre) is part of the Geneva Observatory and deals with the processing of the data provided by the satellite INTEGRAL (INTErnational Gamma Ray Astrophysic Laboratory) of the European Space Agency (ESA). The centre is located at Ecogia, which also belongs to the town of Versoix.
On the two sites of Sauverny and Ecogia, a group of approximately 200 people are employed, including scientists, PhD candidates, students, technical staff (computer and electronics specialists, mechanics), as well as administrative staff.
The Astronomy Department manages two permanent astronomical observation stations: a 1,2 m telescope on the site of La Silla (ESO, Chile), and a 1 m telescope on the site of St-Michel (Observatory of Haute Provence, OHP, France). Our astronomers also use the telescope of the station of the University of Leuven (Belgium) which is located at the observatory "El Roque de los Muchachos" on the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain).
