Prof. Dr. Alessandra Buonanno

Director
Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity
Location Potsdam
+49 331 567-7220
+49 331 567-7298
1.24

Main Focus

Analytical (approximate) Solution of the Two-Body Problem in General Relativity; Highly-Accurate Modeling of Gravitational Waves from Full Coalescence (Inspiral, Merger and Ringdown) combining Analytical and Numerical Relativity; Astrophysical and Fundamental Physics Properties of Compact Objects (Neutron Stars and Black Holes); Tests of General Relativity with Gravitational-Wave Observations; Cosmology of the Very Early Universe; Quantum-Optical Noise in Gravitational-Wave Detectors (Quantum Non-Demolition Techniques)

Curriculum Vitae

Education
1993-1996

Ph.D. in Physics, University of Pisa, Italy

1993

Master in Physics (Laurea), University of Pisa, Italy

Academic Appointments
2020-present
Research Professor, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
2017-present Honorary Professor of Physics, Humboldt University, Berlin
2017-present

Honorary Professor of Physics, Potsdam University, Potsdam

2014-present

Director, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics

2014-present Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society
2014-2020 College Park Professor, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
2010-2014 Professor, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Sep 2005-
2010
Associate Professor (tenured), Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
2005-2014
Visiting Associate, Caltech, Pasadena, CA
Sep 2005-
Aug 2012
Chargée de Recherche de 1 ere classe (tenured) of CNRS (on leave of absence), Laboratoire d’Astroparticule et Cosmologie (APC), Paris, France
Jan 2005-
Aug 2005
Chargée de Recherche de 1 ere classe (tenured) of CNRS, Laboratoire d’Astroparticule et Cosmologie (APC), Paris, France

Dec 2001-
Dec 2004

Chargée de Recherche de 1 ere classe (tenured) of CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), Paris, France
Jan 2002-
Oct 2002
Visiting Associate, Caltech, Pasadena, CA
1999-2001 Richard C. Tolman Prize Postdoctoral Fellow, Caltech, Pasadena, CA
1997-1999 Postdoctoral Fellow, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques
(IHES), Bures-sur-Yvette (Paris), France
Jan 1997-
Sep 1997
Research Associate, Theoretical Division of CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Awards and Honors
2023
Oskar Klein Medal and Memorial Lecture by Stockholm University and the Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
2023
Elected member of the Italian National Academy of Sciences
2022
Tomalla Prize of the Tomalla Foundation for Gravity Research
2021
Balzan Prize of the International Balzan Prize Foundation (shared with T. Damour)
2021
Dirac Medal and Prize of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (shared with T. Damour, F. Pretorius and S. Teukolsky)
2021
Elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences
2021
Elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
2021
Elected member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
2021
Galileo Galilei Medal of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) (shared with T. Damour and F. Pretorius)
2019 8th Benjamin Lee Professorship, Asian Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, South Korea
2018 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (€ 2.5 million) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
2016 Lower Saxony State Prize (shared with B. Allen and K. Danzmann)
2014-2020 Distinguished Visiting Research Chair, Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada
2011-2012 William and Flora Hewlett Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2011 Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)
2010

Elected Fellow of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation

2007

Richard A. Ferrell Distinguished Faculty Fellowship,
Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

2006-2008

Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship

1999-2002

Richard C. Tolman Prize Fellow, Caltech, Pasadena, CA

2000

Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitational Physics (SIGRAV) Prize

Awards as member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
2017 U.K. Group Achievement Award of the Royal Astronomical Society to the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
2017 Einstein Medal of the Einstein Society in Bern, Switzerland, to the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research to R. Drever, K. Thorne and R. Weiss, and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
2017 HEAD Bruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to G. Gonzalez, and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics to R. Drever, K. Thorne and R. Weiss, and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
2016 Gruber Cosmology Prize to R. Drever, K. Thorne and R. Weiss, and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Selected Service in the Physics Community
2023- present Member of the Dirac Medal Committee
2023- present Member of the Research Board of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
2023- present
Member of the Solvay International Scientific Committee for Physics
2022-present
Member of the Committee of the Aspen Institute Italia Award for Scientific Research and Collaboration between Italy and the United States
2019-2021
Member of the  Senior Committee (appointed by the Director of Science) of the European Space Agency (ESA) for Voyage 2050
2019-present Member of the Kavli Prize Committee in Astrophysics
2019-present Member of the Advisory Board of the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, Paris
2018-present Member of the Advisory Board of the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
2018-present Member of the LISA Consortium Board
2017-2019 Member of the Gravitational Physics Division (GPD) Board of the European Physical Society
2012-2015

Member of the Committee of International Freedom of Scientists of the American Physical Society (APS)

2010-2013
Member of the Advisory Board of KITP, Santa Barbara, CA
2005-present
Principal Investigator of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration

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