Professor Dr Reinhard Genzel
Nobel Prize for Physics 2020
- Section Physics
- Location Garching, Germany
- Election year 2002
Research
Research Priorities: Experimental astrophysics, cosmological galaxy formation and development, supermassive black holes, central massive objects, high-resolution infrared, submillimetre and millimetre astronomy, star formation, extragalactic astrophysics
Reinhard Genzel is a German astrophysicist. He is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of infrared, submillimetre and millimetre astronomy. He is primarily interested in the formation, development, and centres of galaxies like our Milky Way. Additionally, he focuses on the formation and development of stars and black holes and studies the interstellar medium, which is the matter, radiation, and magnetic fields in the space between the stars in a galaxy. Reinhard Genzel and the American astronomer Andrea Ghez simultaneously discovered a supermassive black hole with a mass of approximately 4.3 million solar masses in the centre of our galaxy. The discovery of this object, known today as Sagittarius A*, led to him and Andrea Ghez being awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.
In order to study the structure and dynamics of these types of objects, Reinhard Genzel and his team developed several new observation techniques and instruments in the field of infrared, submillimetre and millimetre astronomy. In particular for infrared instruments, he was able to substantially improve sensitivity and angular resolution. These measurement devices, which are stationed on Earth as well as in outer space, are some of the most successful of their time.
These instruments allow Reinhard Genzel to pursue a particular observation strategy: Instead of statistical examinations of many objects, the goal is to use diverse methods to achieve a detailed physical understanding of a few representative sources for the sake of addressing several key questions in a targeted manner.
Following 20 years of acclaimed observational research, Reinhard Genzel and his team succeeded in discovering the black hole known today as Sagittarius A*, a body with a mass of around 4.3 million solar masses in the centre of our Milky Way. To date, this achievement is the strongest empirical evidence for the existence of black holes, which were first proposed by Albert Einstein in the early 20th century within the scope of the Theory of General Relativity.
Career
- 2022 Heinrich-Hertz Visiting Professor, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
- since 2017 Professor, Graduate School, University of California, Berkeley, USA
- 1999-2016 Full Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, USA
- 1987-1999 Visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USA
- since 1988 Honorary Professor, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, Munich, Germany
- since 1986 Director and Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany
- 1985-1986 Full Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USA
- 1981-1985 Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USA
- 1980-1982 Miller Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, USA
- 1978-1980 Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA
- 1978 Doctorate, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn, Germany
- 1975 Diploma in Physics, Institute for Physics and Astronomy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Functions
- since 2021 Vice-Chancellor, Orden Pour le Mérite for Science and Arts, Berlin, Germany
- since 1986 Member, Scientific Board of the Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany
Projects
- 2017-2025 Project Head, Project “Atomic and molecular interstellar medium in high redshift star-forming galaxies”, German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany
- 2009-2016 Project Head, Project “Dynamics and Cosmological Evolution of Galaxies and Massive Black Holes”, DFG, Germany
- 1995-1999 Project Head, Subproject “On the theory of induced star formation and the formation of supermassive stars”, Priority Programme (PP) 471 “Physics of star formation”, DFG, Germany
- 1995-1999 Project Head, Subproject “Large-scale dispersion of T Tauri stars, optical identification and ego-motion determination of x-ray-selected weak-line T Tauri stars”, PP 471, DFG, Germany
- GRAVITY is an adaptive optics assisted Beam Combiner for the second generation VLTI instrumentation, GRAVITY + collaboration
Honours and Memberships
- 2025 Medalla Rectoral, Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile
- 2023 Honorary Doctorate, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
- 2022 Heinrich-Hertz Visiting Professor, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
- 2021 Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, Free State of Bavaria, Germany
- 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics (shared with Andrea Ghez), Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sweden
- since 2020 Member, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican City
- 2014 Honorary Doctorate, Observatoire de Paris (OBSPM), Paris, France
- 2014 Great Cross of Merit with the Star of the Order of Merit, Federal Republic of Germany
- 2014 Caroline Herschel Medal, Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), UK
- 2014 Harvey Prize, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
- since 2013 Member, Orden Pour le Mérite, Berlin, Germany
- since 2012 Foreign Member, Royal Society, UK
- 2012 Crafoord Prize, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sweden
- 2012 Tycho Brahe Medal, European Astronomical Society (EAS)
- 2011 Karl Schwarzschild Medal, German Astronomical Society, Hamburg, Germany
- 2010 Karl G. Jansky Lecture, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
- 1995 Honorary Doctorate, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- 2008 Shaw Prize, Shaw Prize Foundation, Hong Kong, China
- 2007 Albert Einstein Medal, Albert Einstein Society, Bern, Switzerland
- 2007 Namesake, Asteroid “(18241) Genzel”
- 2005 Petrie Prize Lecture, Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA), Canada
- 2003 Balzan Prize, International Balzan Prize Foundation, Milan, Italy
- 2003 Stern Gerlach Medal for experimental physics, German Physical Society (DPG), Germany
- since 2003 Member, Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich, Germany
- since 2002 Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany
- since 2002 Member, European Academy of Sciences
- since 2000 Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences (NAS), USA
- 2000 De Vaucouleurs Medal, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA
- 2000 Jules Janssen Prize, Sociéte astronomique de France, France
- since 1998 Foreign Member, Académie des sciences, Paris, France
- since 1995 Member, Academia Europaea
- 1990 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany,
- 1986 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy, American Astronomical Society, USA
- 1984 Presidential Young Investigators Award, National Science Foundation, USA
- 1980 Otto Hahn Medal, Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany