Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard
University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times,Wall Street
Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L'Express and more). He received a
PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-
1986), led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative
(1983-1988), and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for
Advanced Study at Princeton (1988-1993). Loeb has written 8 books, including most
recently, Extraterrestrial, and nearly a thousand papers (with h-index of 122 and i10-
index of 557) on a wide range of topics, including 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 (2007-present) within the Harvard-
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and also serves as the Head of the Galileo
Project (2021-present). He had been the longest serving Chair of Harvard's
Department of Astronomy (2011-2020) and the Founding Director of Harvard's Black
Hole Initiative (2016-2021). He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts
& Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of
Astronautics. Loeb is a former member of the President's Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House, a former chair of the Board on
Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies (2018-2021) and a current
member of the Advisory Board for "Einstein: Visualize the Impossible" of the Hebrew
University. He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot
Initiative (2016-present) and serves as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives
of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one
of the 25 most influential people in space and in 2020 Loeb was selected among the
14 most inspiring Israelis of the last decade. Click here for Loeb's commentaries on
innovation and diversity.

Personal website: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/