Prof. Dr. Alessandra Buonanno

Director at Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
Head of the department Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity

Address:

Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik
(Albert-Einstein-Institut)

Am Mühlenberg 1
D-14476 Potsdam

GERMANY

Phone: +49 331 567-7220
Fax: +49 331 567-7298

E-mail: alessandra.buonanno@aei.mpg.de

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Data

Nationalities:

Italian (by birth), USA (naturalized)

Education

1993 - 1996	Ph.D. in Physics, University of Pisa, Italy
1993	Master in Physics (Laurea), University of Pisa, Italy

Employment

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

2024	Synergy Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), together with Enrico Barausse (SISSA) Zvi Bern (University of California), and Maarten van de Meent (Niels Bohr Institute)
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 - 2022	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