Professor of Theoretical High Energy Astrophysics
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy/GRAPPA
University of Amsterdam
Science Park 904, rm. C4.151
1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands
T +31 20 525 7478/7491
s.b.markoff@uva.nl

I work at the interface of Astrophysics and Astroparticle Physics, and am interested in a variety of problems relating to the accretion process especially around black holes, both big and small.  I am a member of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, serving on its Science Council from 2016-2022 (Vice Chair from 2019), and now sit on its Science Board.  I also co-coordinate the Multi-Wavelength Science WG, and am a member of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Project.  I am currently co-PI of the ERC Synergy Grant “BlackHolistic” to better understand black holes of all scales, including building a new mm-radio dish in Namibia (the Africa Millimeter Telescope, or AMT) in partnership with the University of Namibia.  By augmenting the EHT array with the AMT we will be able to make the first movies of the event horizon region of a supermassive black hole, as well as use the AMT on its own to study transient black hole outbursts.


Group Blog

Astro Quantum Billiards Part 1 – Can the Photon Pass the Bouncer?

Did you ever wonder if light can bounce off a charged particle like an electron? And how this interaction can lead to some of the highest-energy gamma-ray radiation that we have ever observed in the universe? In this double blog post, I will build up an intuitive and visual understanding of how this quantum billiards between light and charged particles works (part 1) and how its relativistic version can explain some of the most fascinating astrophysical ultra-high-energy observations (part 2). Recently, the astrophysical community is flooded by exciting new observations from the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) and High Altitude Water Cherenkov Experiment (HAWC). Both detectors are measuring light with frequencies in the range of 1-1000 trillion... Continue reading →

Latest News

Bringing the band back together!

First, the new news

It’s the start of a new year so of course I made a bunch of resolutions that likely won’t stick, but one of them was to start doing more research blogging on our site, and to encourage my group to do better here too, after a longish hiatus. Why the hiatus? At least from my side I guess the fallout from the pandemic has been … Continue reading →

Where I Am / Will Be

vacation
April 13, 2025 - April 28, 2025
IoA/KICC
May 5, 2025 - May 9, 2025
CTAO consortium meeting
May 12, 2025 - May 16, 2025
Location: Garching
EGO STAC
May 26, 2025 - May 27, 2025