Gravitational-wave expert Alessandra Buonanno appointed member of ESA Senior Committee
This strategic committee will make recommendations concerning the scientific themes of the next ESA science program Voyage 2050.
“I feel very honoured to be part of this space-science committee,” says Buonanno. “Building on inputs from the broad scientific community, we will discuss the scientific questions that ESA's science program should address in the period 2035–2050, and will advise ESA Science Director Professor Günther Hasinger concerning scientific themes for the upcoming ESA missions.”
Read more (ESA press release)
Alessandra Buonanno is director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam and College Park Professor at the University of Maryland. She is an expert on theoretical modeling of the dynamics and gravitational-wave emission from compact binary systems, such as black holes and/or neutron stars. In 2018 she was awarded the Leibniz Prize in recognition of her key role in the first direct observation of gravitational waves. In 2016 she was awarded the Lower Saxony State Award together with her Hannover colleagues Professor Bruce Allen and Professor Karsten Danzmann. As a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, she received numerous other awards: the 2016 Gruber Prize and the Special Breakthrough Prize, as well as the 2017 Princess of Asturias Prize, the Bruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society, and the Achievement Award of the Royal Astronomical Society. Since 2017, Buonanno has been honorary professor at the University of Potsdam and the Humboldt University in Berlin.
