Professor Guido Müller appointed as new director
The gravitational-wave and experimental astrophysicist will establish a third department at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover
Professor Guido Müller joins the Albert Einstein Institute in Hannover as director. He will establish the institute’s third department “Precision Interferometry and Fundamental Interactions” with a focus on precision interferometry for LISA and future space missions, as well as fundamental interactions beyond the standard model.
A third director will join the AEI Hannover in August 2022. Guido Müller is a professor for physics at the University of Florida’s Institute for High Energy Physics and Astrophysics (IHEPA). His expertise in precision interferometry for ground-based and space-based gravitational-wave detectors will strengthen the AEI’s worldwide leading role in these research fields. Moreover, his contributions to beyond the standard model physics further broaden the institute’s research portfolio.
“The next years and decades will be a very exciting time: the heyday of gravitational-wave astronomy with much more sensitive observatories and many more events,” says Müller. “I feel very honored and am thankful for the opportunities that come with such a prestigious position; but I am also aware of the responsibility we at the institute have for LISA, the largest astronomical observatory ever built.”
As a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration Müller has worked on many aspects of the initial and Advanced LIGO detectors, including the design, fabrication and installation of the input optics. He develops key technology for the interferometric measurement system of LISA, the planned space-based gravitational-wave observatory scheduled for launch in the early 2030s. As a member of the ALPS collaboration he works on experimental methods for detecting new fundamental particles and phenomena.
“I am delighted to welcome Guido Müller, my first PhD student in Hannover, back home again after his 25 years in Florida. With his arrival the long planned extension of our institute to three departments finally happens,” says Karsten Danzmann, director at the AEI Hannover. “Professor Müller’s experience and research expertise in space-based and ground-based gravitational-wave detectors alike will consolidate the role of our institute as one world’s leading centers for gravitational physics.”
Guido Müller received his PhD in 1997 at the University of Hannover. Afterwards he held JSPS postdoctoral fellow position at University of Electro-Communication in Tokyo, Japan, and a postdoctoral scholar position at the University of Florida. In the following years, while being a research scientist at the University of Florida he also became a visiting scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. After being appointed assistant professor in 2003 and associate professor in 2007 he became a full professor at the University of Florida’s Institute for High Energy Physics and Astrophysics in 2012.
