Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show Are We Alone? - Prof Avi Loeb, Harvard - Chair Advisory Committee - Breakthrough Starshot Initiative
Professor Dr. Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University. He joined Harvard University in 1993 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy, where he was tenured three years later. Prof. Dr. Loeb received his PhD in plasma physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24, led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative / "Star Wars" program, and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Prof. Dr. Loeb has written 8 books, including most recently, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, and about 800 papers on a wide range of topics, including black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of the Universe. Prof. Dr. Loeb had been the longest serving Chair of Harvard's Department of Astronomy, Founding Director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative, and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Prof. Dr. Loeb serves as Chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies and is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. Prof. Dr. Loeb is a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology at the White House and a member of the Advisory Board for "Einstein: Visualize the Impossible" of the Hebrew University. Prof. Dr. Loeb also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative and serves as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Prof. Dr. Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space and in 2020 he was selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last decade.