Contents
Reinhard Genzel
Tracking stars that revealed a supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s centre.
Galactic Centre stars · S2 redshift
- Born
- 24 March 1952
- Birthplace
- Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany
More people
Reinhard Genzel
Reinhard Genzel is a German astrophysicist whose team developed precise infrared observations of the Galactic Centre. He shared the 2020 physics Nobel.
Early life
Scientific family
His father Ludwig was a physics professor.
Doctoral research
Earned a Bonn doctorate in radio astronomy in 1978.
Career
- 1981
Berkeley faculty
Began teaching and research at the University of California, Berkeley.
- 1986
Max Planck leadership
Became a director at the Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
- 2020
Nobel recognition
Shared the physics prize with Andrea Ghez and Roger Penrose.
Contributions
Galactic Centre stars
Tracked stellar motions around Sagittarius A*.
S2 redshift
His collaboration tested a prediction of general relativity near the central object.
Astronomical instruments
Developed infrared and submillimetre tools for observing stars and galaxies.
Beyond the lab
Academic connections
Maintained long collaborations between German and American institutions.
Scientific service
Served on the Shaw Prize’s astronomy selection committee.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and career ↗Further source ↗Identity and date cross-check ↗Photo: MPE. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
