Reinhard Genzel

Reinhard Genzel (; born 24 March 1952) is a German astrophysicist, co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, a professor at LMU Munich and an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy", which he shared with Andrea Ghez and Roger Penrose. In a 2021 interview given to Federal University of Pará in Brazil, Genzel recalls his journey as a physicist; the influence of his father, ; his experiences working with Charles H. Townes; and more.

Life and career Genzel was born in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany, the son of Eva-Maria Genzel and Ludwig Genzel, a professor of solid state physics (1922–2003). He studied physics at the University of Freiburg and the University of Bonn, graduating in 1978 with a PhD in radioastronomy which he prepared at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. Subsequently he worked at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a Miller Fellow from 1980 until 1982, and also Associate and finally Full Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley from 1981. In 1986, he left Berkeley to become a director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching and Scientific Member of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. During that time he also lectured at LMU Munich, where he has been Honorary Professor since 1988.

Work Reinhard Genzel studies infrared- and submillimetre astronomy. He and his group are active in developing ground- and space-based instruments for astronomy. They 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. Genzel is also active in studies of the formation and evolution of galaxies.

Awards

Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, 1973–1975 Miller Research Fellowship, 1980–1982 Otto Hahn Medal, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 1980 Shaw Prize, 2008 "Galileo 2000" Prize, 2009 Karl Schwarzschild Medal, Deutsche Astronomische Gesellschaft, 2011 Crafoord Prize, Royal Swedish Academy, 2012 Tycho Brahe Prize, European Astronomical Society, 2012 Pour le Mérite, 2013 Dr. h.c. University of Paris, 2014 Harvey Prize, Technion Institute, Israel, 2014 Herschel Medal, Royal Astronomical Society, 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, 2020 Dr. h.c. Grenoble Alpes University, 2023 Rectorat's Medal University of Chile, 2025 Bavarian Constitutional Order, 2025

Membership of scientific societies Fellow of the American Physical Society, 1985 Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, 2002 Senior member of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2003 Member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain, 2010 Foreign member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, 2011