Avi Loeb

Why you should listen

As head of Harvard's Galileo Project and founding director of the Black Hole Initiative, Avi Loeb searches for extraterrestrial intelligent life. He is the author of nine books, including the bestselling Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, as well as more than a thousand scientific papers on topics such as black holes, the first stars and the future of the universe. Loeb also directs the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a former member of the US President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a former chair of the board on physics and astronomy of the National Academies and was the longest-serving chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department. His most recent book, Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars, was published in 2023.