| Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times,Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L'Express and more).
He received a PhD in Physics from
the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986),
led the first international project supported by
the Strategic
Defense Initiative (1983-1988), and was subsequently a
long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton
(1988-1993). Loeb has written 8 books, including most recently, Extraterrestrial (HarperCollins, 2022) and Interstellar (HarperCollins, 2023) and over a thousand papers (with
h-index
of 133 and i10-index of 631) on a wide range of topics, including
black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and
the future of the Universe.
Loeb is the Director of
the Institute for Theory and Computation (2007-present)
within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
, and also serves as the Head of
the Galileo Project (2021-present).
He had been the
longest serving Chair of Harvard's
Department of Astronomy (2011-2020) and the Founding Director of
Harvard's Black
Hole Initiative (2016-2021).
He is
an elected fellow of
the American
Academy of Arts & Sciences,
the American
Physical Society, and
the International Academy of
Astronautics. Loeb is a former member of the
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House, a former chair of
the Board
on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies (2018-2021) and
a current member of the Advisory Board for "Einstein: Visualize
the Impossible" of the Hebrew University.
He chaired the Advisory Committee for
the Breakthrough
Starshot Initiative (2015-2024) and served as the Science Theory Director
for
all Initiatives
of the Breakthrough Prize
Foundation. In
2012, TIME
magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in
space and in 2020
Loeb was
selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last
decade.
In 2024, Loeb was ranked number 3 in publication record and impact of research among all astronomers worldwide over the past 5 years by ScholarGPS.
Loeb's latest TED talk was among the top five most popular TED talks in 2024.
Click here
for Loeb's commentaries.
Staff Assistant:
ITC Administrator:
BHI Administrator:
Theory Div. Admin.:
*Extraterrestrial: 28 editions in 25 languages worldwide (2021).
*Extraterrestrial summary, HMH (2021).
IN THE NEWS:
*"The International Asteroid Warning Network Initiated a Campaign to Monitor 3I/ATLAS" (October 22, 2025).
*"The Anti-tail of 3I/ATLAS Turned to a Tail!" (October 22, 2025).
*"The Scientific Revolution of Interstellar Objects" (October 21, 2025).
*"The Imminent Solar Conjunction of 3I/ATLAS" (October 19, 2025).
*"A Sunward Jet from 3I/ATLAS, Imaged by the Two-meter Twin Telescope" (October 17, 2025).
*"Images of Nickel and Cyanide Around 3I/ATLAS from the Keck Telescope" (October 15, 2025).
*"Cosmic Generosity in Stippled Watercolors" (October 14, 2025).
*"Extraterrestrial Life Forms Were Not Created Equal" (October 13, 2025).
*"The Gravity of 3I/ATLAS" (October 11, 2025).
IN THE NEWS:
*"Will 3I/ATLAS Break Up?" (October 10, 2025).
*"Q and A on the Long-Term Lessons from the Interstellar Visit of 3I/ATLAS" (October 8, 2025).
*"First Images of 3I/ATLAS from ExoMars TGO" (October 7, 2025).
*"New Questions and Answers About 3I/ATLAS" (October 7, 2025).
*"Interpretation of the Stripe in the New Image of 3I/ATLAS from the Perseverance Rover Camera" (October 5, 2025).
*"Why is the Orbital Plane of 3I/ATLAS Inclined by 5 degrees Relative to the Ecliptic Plane?" (October 5, 2025).
*"A Preliminary View of 3I/ATLAS from Mars" (October 4, 2025).
*"A Recap of the Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS on the Day of Its Closest Approach to Mars" (October 3, 2025).
*"New Data on the Extreme Nickel Production of 3I/ATLAS" (October 1, 2025).
*"New Data on the Extreme Nickel Production of 3I/ATLAS" (October 1, 2025).
*"Advancing Interstellar Science: A Global Framework for Comprehensive Study of Interstellar Objects" (September 30, 2025).
*"Was the Wow! Signal Emitted from 3I/ATLAS?" (September 28, 2025).
*"What is the Nature of 3I/ATLAS?" (September 26, 2025).
*"Works of Love" (September 25, 2025).
*"News on 3I/ATLAS: Lack of Non-Gravitational Acceleration Implies an Anomalously Massive Object" (September 24, 2025).
*"The Interstellar Path to Prosperity" (September 22, 2025).
*"Finding a Meaning to Our Existence from Extraterrestrial Siblings" (September 20, 2025).
*"Political Violence Makes No Sense" (September 17, 2025).
*"The New Comet SWAN (C/2025 R2) Originated from a Different Direction Than 3I/ATLAS" (September 15, 2025).
*"Is the Nucleus of 3I/ATLAS 15 kilometers in diameter?" (September 14, 2025).
*"BeLaU Spherules from an Interstellar Meteor Site in the Pacific Ocean are Not Common Terrestrial Materials" (September 13, 2025).
*"The Sunward Glow in the Hubble Image of 3I/ATLAS is Ten Times Longer Than It is Wide" (September 12, 2025).
*"Did a Hellfire Missile Hit a Samad Drone Launched by the Houthis on October 30, 2024?" (September 11, 2025).
*"Extreme Negative Polarization of 3I/ATLAS" (September 10, 2025).
*"Explaining the Anomalous Anti-Tail of 3I/ATLAS" (September 9, 2025).
*"3I/ATLAS is Turning Green" (September 9, 2025).
*"How to Distinguish a Population of Interstellar Rocks from a Fleet of Spacecraft?" (September 8, 2025).
*"Quantitative Mapping of the Loeb Scale" (September 7, 2025).
*"What is the Nucleus Size of 3I/ATLAS?" (September 6, 2025).
*"The Racing Speed of 3I/ATLAS" (September 4, 2025).
*"Bigger is Better for Interstellar Spacecraft" (September 3, 2025).
*"Q and A About Extraterrestrial Architecture" (September 2, 2025).
*"The Blind Date of Mars with 3I/ATLAS in a Month" (September 1, 2025).
*"The Challenge of Measuring the Mass of 3I/ATLAS" (August 31, 2025).
*"Detection of an Anti-Solar Tail for 3I/ATLAS" (August 30, 2025).
*"A Steeply-Rising Production of Cyanide and Nickel Without Iron in the Gas Plume Around 3I/ATLAS" (August 28, 2025).
*"The First Webb Telescope Observations of 3I/ATLAS" (August 26, 2025).
*"What Do We Know So Far About 3I/ATLAS?" (August 25, 2025).
*"3I/ATLAS is Large and Releases Carbon Dioxide (CO2)" (August 24, 2025).
*"Should We Be Happier if 3I/ATLAS is a Comet?" (August 23, 2025).
*"Is 3I/ATLAS Made of Antimatter?" (August 21, 2025).
*"Because of You!: 3I/ATLAS Inspires Kids to Be Scientists" (August 20, 2025).
*"The Adaptive Communication Framework (ACF) for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Discovery" (August 20, 2025).
*"New Insights in Today's Research Notes on 3I/ATLAS" (August 20, 2025).
*"The Challenge of Obtaining Resolved Images of Interstellar Objects" (August 19, 2025).
*"Does 3I/ATLAS Generate Its Own Light?" (August 17, 2025).
*"Dark Comets or Alien Tech?" (August 16, 2025).
*"What Should Humanity Do on the Day After an Interstellar Object is Recognized as Technological?" (August 15, 2025).
*"Science is Nourishing" (August 14, 2025).
*"Is 3I/ATLAS Our Turing Test by a Superior Alien Intelligence?" (August 13, 2025).
*"Will Humans Worship an Advanced Alien Intelligence?" (August 12, 2025).
*"The Release of Dust from the Surface of 3I/ATLAS Does Not Imply That it is a Comet" (August 11, 2025).
*"Should We Message 3I/ATLAS?" (August 10, 2025).
*"Testing the Nature of 3I/ATLAS by Its Non-Gravitational Acceleration" (August 10, 2025).
*"On the Uncertain Nature of 3I/ATLAS" (August 9, 2025).
*"No, There is No Clear Evidence for Water Around 3I/ATLAS" (August 7, 2025).
*"The Loeb Scale: Astronomical Classification of Interstellar Objects" (August 6, 2025).
*"Hubble Space Telescope Shows a Diffuse Glow Ahead of 3I/ATLAS" (August 6, 2025).
*"Todays Q and A About 3I/ATLAS" (August 5, 2025).
*"3I/ATLAS Has No Visible Tail or Spectral Fingerprints of Gas Around It" (August 4, 2025).
*"The Duck Test of 3I/ATLAS" (August 3, 2025).
*"How Close Can the Juno Spacecraft Get to the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS?" (August 2, 2025).
*"The Visionary Letter from Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna to NASA Regarding 3I/ATLAS" (August 1, 2025).
*"Keeping Our Eyes on the Ball of 3I/ATLAS" (July 31, 2025).
*"The Media Tsunami of 3I/ATLAS" (July 30, 2025).
*"Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Its Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Rejuvenated Juno Spacecraft" (July 29, 2025).
*"Did 3I/ATLAS Go Viral?" (July 27, 2025).
*"Are We Living in a Simulated Cosmos?" (July 25, 2025).
*"Weighing Interstellar Objects with Gravitational Wave Detectors" (July 23, 2025).
*"From Extraterrestrial Microbes to Alien Intelligence: Rebalancing Astronomical Research Priorities" (July 23, 2025).
*"Trading Options for Alien Tech" (July 22, 2025).
*"On Lovers and Haters of the Search for a Higher Intelligence" (July 20, 2025).
*"The Elongated Image of 3I/ATLAS" (July 20, 2025).
*"Security Risks from Interstellar Objects" (July 18, 2025).
*"Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?" (July 16, 2025).
*"A New Direct Method to Search for Life Near Other Stars" (July 14, 2025).
*"How to Distinguish Extraterrestrial Spacecraft from Interstellar Rocks?" (July 14, 2025).
*"Preliminary Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS" (July 12, 2025).
*"Scientific Paradigm Resistance: Evidence from the âÂÂOumuamua Debate and Cross-Disciplinary Cases" (July 8, 2025).
*"Origin and Age of Three Interstellar Objects: 1I/`Oumuamua, 2I/Borisov, and 3I/ATLAS" (July 8, 2025).
*"Rendezvous with 3I/ATLAS" (July 7, 2025).
*"The New Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS is Smaller or Rarer Than it Looks" (July 4, 2025).
*"Welcoming a New Interstellar Object: A11pI3Z" (July 2, 2025).
*"Three Shovels for Interstellar Archaeology" (July 1, 2025).
*"The Training Set for Our Future Scientific Discoveries" (June 29, 2025).
*"Taking a Gamble on Anomalies in the Sky" (June 26, 2025).
*"The Most Consequential Movie of the Sky" (June 23, 2025).
*"Learning from Mistakes in Mainstream Science" (June 22, 2025).
*"86-Billion Neurons are Not Enough" (June 20, 2025).
*"The Second Half of 2025 Offers Exciting New Opportunities to Search Our Cosmic Mailbox!" (June 18, 2025).
*"The Longevity Game: An Addendum" (June 16, 2025).
*"The Longevity Game" (June 16, 2025).
*"The Unapologetic Vatican in the Shapley Supercluster" (June 14, 2025).
*"Dark Comets Might be Spacecraft" (June 12, 2025).
*"Happy 75th Anniversary to the National Science Foundation!" (June 11, 2025).
*"Why is the Sky Dark at Night?" (June 11, 2025).
*"Cosmic Rule-of-Thumb" (June 9, 2025).
*"Do the Plumes of Europa Carry Frozen Bacteria?" (June 7, 2025).
*"American Fund for Fundamental Science" (June 6, 2025).
*"Attacks on the Three Facets of My Idensity" (June 4, 2025).
*"The Pleasure of Being a Scientist" (June 3, 2025).
*"Would We Notice a Nuclear War on an Exoplanet?" (June 2, 2025).
*"Our Cosmic Truth" (June 1, 2025).
*"Observing the Cosmos Drift in Real Time" (May 31, 2025).
*"Decorating Asteroids with Retroreflectors" (May 29, 2025).
*"Is Consciousness Our Monolith?" (May 28, 2025).
*"Gravitational-Wave Rockets" (May 26, 2025).
*"Is the 0.2 Percent Outlier-Fraction of Meteorites from an Interstellar Origin?" (May 25, 2025).
*"Astrophysical Black Holes Rule-Out Negative-Mass Particles" (May 24, 2025).
*"Technologies Beyond the Standard Model of Physics" (May 22, 2025).
*"A Q and A About Our Extraterrestrial Siblings" (May 20, 2025).
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