Reinhard Genzel ForMemRS[1] (born 24 March 1952 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany) is a German astrophysicist. He was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for physics, which he shared with Andrea Ghez and Roger Penrose.[2]
Life
Genzel studied physics at the University of Freiburg and the University of Bonn where he did his PhD in 1978[3] and, in the same year, his PhD thesis on radioastronomy at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.[3] He then worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He then was a Miller Fellow from 1980 until 1982, and also Associate and Full Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley from 1981. He became Scientific Member of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in 1986, and director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching and lectured at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München where he has been honorary Professor since 1988.[3] Since 1999 he has also a joint appointment as Full Professor at the University of California, Berkeley.[3] He also sits on the selection committee for the Shaw Prize in astronomy.[citation needed]
Work
Reinhard Genzel studies infrared- and submillimetre astronomy. He and his group are active in developing ground- and space-based instruments for astronomy. He and his group used these to track the motions of stars at the centre of the Milky Way, around Sagittarius A*, and show that they were orbiting a very massive object, now known to be a black hole.[4] Genzel is also active in studies of the formation and evolution of galaxies.[citation needed]
In July 2018, Reinhard Genzel et al. reported that star S2 orbiting Sgr A* had been recorded at 7,650 km/s or 2.55% the speed of light leading up to the pericentre approach in May 2018 at about 120 AU ≈ 1400 Schwarzschild radii from Sgr A*. This allowed them to test the redshift predicted by general relativity at relativistic velocities, finding additional confirmation of the theory.[5][6]
Awards
Miller Research Fellowship, 1980–1982[citation needed]
Otto Hahn Medal, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 1980[citation needed]
Presidential Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation, 1984[citation needed]
Newton Lacy Pierce Prize, American Astronomical Society, 1986[citation needed]
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 1990[citation needed]
De Vaucouleurs Medal, University of Texas, 2000[citation needed]
Prix Jules Janssen, Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society), 2000[citation needed]
Stern Gerlach Medal for experimental physics, Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, 2003[citation needed]
Balzan Prize for Infrared Astronomy, 2003[citation needed]
Albert Einstein Medal, 2007[7]
Shaw Prize, 2008[8]
"Galileo 2000" Prize, 2009[citation needed]
Karl Schwarzschild Medal, Deutsche Astronomische Gesellschaft, 2011[9]
Crafoord Prize, Royal Swedish Academy, 2012[10]
Tycho Brahe Prize, European Astronomical Society, 2012[11]
Harvey Prize, Technion Institute, Israel, 2014[12]
Herschel Medal, Royal Astronomical Society, 2014[13]
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2020[2]
Membership of scientific societies
Member of the US and German Astronomical and Physical Societies[citation needed]
Fellow of the American Physical Society, 1985[citation needed]
Foreign member of the Académie des Sciences (Institut de France), 1998[citation needed]
Foreign member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, 2000[14]
Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, 2002[15]
Senior member of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2003[15]
Foreign member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, 2011[citation needed]
Foreign member of the Royal Society of London, 2012 [1]
References
http://royalsociety.org/people/reinhard-genzel/ Professor Reinhard Genzel ForMemRS
"Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
Curriculum-vitae Archived 5 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine, website of the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik
Eckart, A.; Genzel, R. (1996). "Observations of stellar proper motions near the Galactic Centre". Nature. 383 (6599): 415. Bibcode:1996Natur.383..415E. doi:10.1038/383415a0. S2CID 4285760.
Abuter, R.; Amorim, A. (2018). "Detection of the gravitational redshift in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 615: L15. arXiv:1807.09409. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833718. Archived from the original on 6 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
Star spotted speeding near black hole at centre of Milky Way -- Chile’s Very Large Telescope tracks S2 star as it reaches mind-boggling speeds by supermassive black hole, The Guardian, 26 July 2017
The Awarding of the Einstein Medal: Albert Einstein Medal Laureates at Albert Einstein Medal website
"The Shaw Prize". The Shaw Prize. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
"Reinhard Genzel receives Karl Schwarzschild Medal 2011". 13 July 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
"Crafoord Prize for Reinhard Genzel". Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. 22 July 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
"Tycho Brahe-Preis für Reinhard Genzel". Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (in German). 25 February 2020. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
Harvey Prize 2014 Archived 2 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
"Awards, Medals and Prizes - Herschel Medal". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
"Reinhard Genzel". National Academy of Sciences. 18 June 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
"Leopoldina-Präsident Gerald Haug gratuliert Leopoldina-Mitglied Reinhard Genzel zum Nobelpreis für Physik". idw (in German). Retrieved 6 October 2020. .
External links
Genzel's Homepage at MPE
Genzel's Profile at the MPG
The Balzan-Stiftung award
Black Holes and Galaxies 27 July 2009 - ANU podcast mp3 also available as video on youtube
Black Holes and Galaxies: Professor Reinhard Genzel - ANU TV on youtube
Hellenica World - Scientific Library
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/"
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