Professor Garik Israelian
Astrophysicist, Institute of Astrophysics of Canary Islands, Spain
Professor Garik Israelian is an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (Spain). He is also the creative director and spiritual father of the STARMUS Festival.
In 1999 he led a collaboration reported in the journal Nature that found the first observational evidence that supernova explosions are responsible for the formation of black holes. His research has led to several high profile discoveries published in Nature and other professional journals on topics such as extra-solar planets, massive stars and black hole binary systems.
Professor Israelian has spoken at dozens of professional conferences, including TED Global. He was awarded the 2010 Ambartsumian Prize for Astrophysics, Physics or Mathematics, with Michel Mayor and Nuno Santos, for the studies of extra-solar planets and their parent stars.
Dr. Israelian is a trusted referee of the scientific magazines Nature, Science,
Astrophysical Journal etc. He has previously worked as a lecturer/researcher at the Universities of Utrecht (The Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium) and Sydney (Australia). Since 2001 he is a Principal Investigator of the project Stellar chemical abundances: clues on the formation of the Galaxy, black holes and planets at the Institute of Astrophysics in the Canary Islands (IAC), and a Professor at the University of La Laguna in the Canary Islands (Spain).
The IAC operates the largest optical telescope in the world, the 10.4-meter GTC, located on the island La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain).
