Prof. Dr. Harald P. Pfeiffer

Profile

Academic positionAssociate Professor, Senior Lecturer, Reader
Research fieldsTheoretical Physics,Astronomy
Keywordscomputational physics, black holes, general relativity, gravitational waves
Honours and awards

2023: Fellow, American Physical Society

2016: Gruber Cosmology Prize

2016: Outstanding Referee of the American Physical Society

2016: Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics2016

2015: Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

2014: Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Numerical Relativity and Gravitational Wave Astrophysics

2014: Ontario Early Researcher Award

2005: American Physical Society Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics

Current contact address

CountryGermany
CityPotsdam
InstitutionMax-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut)

Host during sponsorship

Prof. Dr. Alessandra BuonannoMax-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Golm
Start of initial sponsorship01/01/2016

Programme(s)

2015Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award Programme

Nominator's project description

Professor Pfeiffer is well known internationally for his contribution to the understanding of the behavior of colliding black holes, one of the prime sources of gravitational waves for gravitational-wave detectors. He has significantly enhanced the understanding of gravity for very strong gravitating systems. In Germany, he will lead the production of numerical simulations that are used to develop waveform-templates for merging black holes.