Sera Markoff
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy & GRAPPA (Gravitation & Astroparticle Physics Amsterdam)
University of Amsterdam
Science Park 904
1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands
T +31 20 525 7491 (secretaries)
s.b.markoff@uva.nl
This is a basic summary. Here is a somewhat recent PDF of my CV.
Here is a direct link to my refereed publications (ADS). As of April 2024 (from ADS): 255 refereed publications, ~27.7k citations, 57 >100 citations, h=77.
PERSONAL DATA
Citizenship — USA
Languages — English (native), German (was fluent until I started learning Dutch), Dutch (pretty darn fluent)
CURRENT POSITION
2017 – Present — Professor of Theoretical High Energy Astrophysics, University of Amsterdam (UvA)
2016 – Present — Founding member Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (member of Science Board 2024-, was member of Science Council 2016-2022, Vice-Chair 2019-2022)
EDUCATION
2000 — PhD, Theoretical Astrophysics Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA , thesis title “High Energy Processes in the Galactic Center”
1996 — M.A., Physics/Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, US
1993 — S.B., Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2017 – present — Professor, UvA
2008- 2017 — Universitair Hoofddocent (Assoc. Prof.), UvA
2006-2008 — Universitair Docent (Assist. Prof.), UvA
2002-2005 — National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
2000-2002 — A.v. Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn, Germany
1994-2000 — Graduate student researcher at University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, US
1993-1994 — Visiting graduate student researcher at the Racah Institute for Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
1990-1993 — Undergraduate researcher at the MIT Center for Space Research, thesis: “The Unusual ROSAT Quasar PG1407+265”
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Accretion and outflows around black holes of all mass scales, and the relationship between them, as well as their impact on their surroundings. High energy astrophysics, astroparticle physics, jetted transients, multi-messenger astrophysics from low-frequency radio through gamma-rays, as well as cosmic rays and neutrinos. Instrumentation: The global mm-VLBI project The Event Horizon Telescope, and the next generation GeV/TeV gamma-ray facility Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), as well as software development to simultaneously analyse multi-messenger signals.
RECOGNITIONS, AWARDS & HONORS (SINCE 2000)
2024 — Distinguished Public Lecture, Southampton Theory, Astrophysics and Gravity (STAG) Research Centre, University of Southampton, UK
2024 — Visiting Professor, University of Namibia
2024 — Elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences (KNAW)
2024 — Ehrenfest Colloquium Series, Leiden University, NL
2022 — ERC Synergy Grant “BlackHolistic” co-PI
2022 — Biard Endowed Public Lecture, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
2022 — Distinguished visitor, Black Hole Initiative, Harvard University (May-June)
2021 — Named member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW)
2021 — UK Royal Astronomical Society Group Achievement Award (Awarded to the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration; EHTC)
2020 — Dutch Research Council (NWO) Domain Science Diversity Prize (for ongoing projects with elementary school children from under-represented backgrounds, and their families), €50k
2020 — Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics ($3M); Bruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society; Einstein Medal of the Albert Einstein Society (Awarded to the EHTC for the first image of a supermassive black hole)
2019 — Berkeley Prize of the American Astronomical Society; Diamond Achievement of the US National Science Foundation; Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award (Natural Sciences) (Awarded to the EHTC)
2019 — Willem de Graaff Prize for Public Outreach (Royal Dutch Astronomical Society)
2019 — Grassroots Diversity Award (University of Amsterdam Science Faculty)
2018 — Westerdijk Professorship Prize (NWO)
2015 — VICI personal career award (NWO): From micro- to mega-scales: understanding how black holes shape the local Universe (5 years)
2015 — Tinsley Centennial Visiting Professorship, UT Austin, 2/20/15-5/2/15
2014 — Named Fellow of the American Physical Society (top 0.5% of membership)
2013 — Visiting Professorship, University Paris Diderot (VII), 3/1/13—5/31/13
2007 — VIDI personal career award (NWO), Understanding the Physics of Black Hole Jets and Accretion States from Stellar to Galactic Scales (5 years)
2002 — National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
2000 — Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship
SELECTED RESEARCH GRANTS
2023 — NWO Research Infrastructure Consortium “The Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT) – making colour movies of black holes”, €3.5M (PI: H. Falcke, coPI S. Markoff)
2022 — ERC Synergy Grant “BlackHolistic”, €13.8M (3PIs: H. Falcke, R. Fender, S. Markoff)
2020 — NWO Large Project: A major Dutch contribution to CTA by building cameras for this next generation gamma-ray observatory, €2M (PI: J. Vink, Project Scientist: Markoff, Co-PIs: A. Baryshev, M. Vecchi, C. Weniger)
2020 — NWO/NWA ORC, Dutch Black Hole Consortium, €4.9M (PI: P. Jonker, Markoff: CoPI and member of the Consortium Board)
2015 — NWO VICI innovation grant + Aspasia subsidy, €1.6M
2014— NWO Astroparticle Physics Program, Determining the contribution of X-ray Binaries to the Galactic cosmic ray population, and their TeV emission properties, (Co-PIs: S. Markoff & B. Achterberg), €215k
2014— NWO Astroparticle Physics Program, CTA-NL: Establishing the Netherlands as full member country of the Cherenkov Telescope Array, (PI: D. Berge, CoIs: Markoff, Vink, Venema, Stuik, Hörandel, van den Berg), €645k
2013— NOVA-4 Instrumentation, Camera & Detector Development for CTA, (PI: J. Vink, CoIs: Berge, Markoff, Hörandel, Stuik, Venema, van den Berg), €1.5M
2013— NWO Open Competition, First steps towards calibrating black hole jet feedback: a decisive link between inflow and outflow, €180k
2012 — NWO Graduate Programme proposal for GRAPPA (Co-PI with J. Vink, P. Decowski, J. de Boer), €800k
2011 — NASA Chandra X-ray Visionary Program: 3Msec on Galactic supermassive black hole Sgr A* (Co-PI with F. Baganoff & M. Nowak), $390k
2008 — Co-coordinator, with Jörn Wilms (Uni Erlangen), of the EU FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network “Black Hole Universe” linking UvA, Erlangen/Nürnberg (D), Southampton (UK), CEA Saclay (F), INAF Brera (IT), U Cagliari (IT) and Sabanci University (Turkey), ~€2.5M
2007 — NWO VIDI innovation grant + Aspasia subsidy, €700k
2007 — NASA Astrophysics Theory Program grant (PI: D. Meier, CoIs: Markoff, Nakamura & Fragile), $311k
2006 — NWO Open Competition, Constraining jet physics in accreting black holes, €185k