Avi Loeb

Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology. He received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at the age of 24, led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative, and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Loeb has written eight books, including the New York Times bestseller "Extraterrestrial" and his follow-up, "Interstellar," and nearly a thousand papers on a wide range of topics, such as black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of the Universe.

Loeb is the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and also serves as the Head of the Galileo Project. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. Previously, he was the longest serving Chair of Harvard's Department of Astronomy and the Founding Director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative. He chaired the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative and served as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. A former member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House, he was also a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies and is a current member of the Advisory Board for "Einstein: Visualize the Impossible" of the Hebrew University.

In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space and in 2020, he was selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last decade. In 2024, Loeb was ranked number three in publication record and impact of research among all astronomers worldwide over the past five years by ScholarGPS.