This summer, spokesperson Luciana Rezzolla received a lot of good news: First, he was elected as Fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG). The ISGRG honoured Rezzolla “for leading contributions to the development of robust numerical relativity simulations of astrophysical phenomena”, that is, the very same calculations that are necessary to predict the gravitational-wave signal from merging neutron stars or to produce the image of the Black Hole Sagittarius A* at the centre of our Milky Way.

The same day, he was also awarded a Laureatus-professorship by the “Walter Greiner Gesellschaft zur Förderung der physikalischen Grundlagenforschung“, which aims at ideologically and financially supporting basic research in Frankfurt, especially in the field of Physics. “Having such a prestigious endorsement from a society that is dedicated to the promotion of science in Frankfurt is of enormous importance to me and strengthens my sense belonging to a city that has always welcomed me and made me feel a Frankfurter”, Rezzolla says.

Finally, Rezzolla was announced to be a winner of the Falling Walls Science Breakthrough in Physical Sciences 2022 only yesterday. The Falling Walls Foundation celebrates groundbreaking research across disciplines, asking “Which are the next walls to fall in science and society?”.