Abraham (Avi) Loeb
Professor of Science, Harvard University
Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author featured on major international lists. He earned his PhD in Physics at 24, later joining the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and has since published 9 books—including Extraterrestrial and Interstellar—and over a thousand scientific papers on black holes, the first stars, and the search for extraterrestrial life. Loeb directs Harvard’s Institute for Theory and Computation and the Galileo Project, previously chaired Harvard’s Astronomy Department, and founded the Black Hole Initiative. Recognized by TIME as one of the 25 most influential people in space, his honors include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and leadership roles with the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and U.S. science advisory boards. In 2024, he was ranked among the top three most impactful astronomers worldwide, with his TED talk that year among the five most popular.
