Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Avi Loeb
open-in-new
<p>Abraham "Avi" Loeb is an Israeli and American theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology. Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, where since 2007 he has been Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the <a href="/facts/Harvard-Smithsonian_Center_for_Astrophysics/1MNDcvoo">Center for Astrophysics</a>. He chaired the Department of Astronomy from 2011 to 2020, and founded the <a href="/facts/Black_Hole_Initiative/caudkP9G">Black Hole Initiative</a> in 2016. </p><p>Loeb is a fellow of the <a href="/facts/American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences/KptWYgz4">American Academy of Arts and Sciences</a>, the <a href="/facts/American_Physical_Society/DCkkU6dD">American Physical Society</a>, and the <a href="/facts/International_Academy_of_Astronautics/vWLo1fWV">International Academy of Astronautics</a>. In 2015, he was appointed as the science theory director for the <a href="/facts/Breakthrough_Initiatives/Vl9BrANF">Breakthrough Initiatives</a> of the <a href="/facts/Breakthrough_Prize/wdCfSuUr">Breakthrough Prize</a> Foundation. </p><p>Loeb has published popular science books including <i><a href="/facts/Extraterrestrial%3a_The_First_Sign_of_Intelligent_Life_Beyond_Earth/GNze9Uor">Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth</a></i> (2021) and <i><a href="/facts/Interstellar%3a_The_Search_for_Extraterrestrial_Life_and_Our_Future_in_the_Stars/2vSrbfw8">Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars</a></i> (2023). </p><p>In 2018, he suggested that alien space craft may be in the Solar System, using <a href="/facts/%25CA%25BBOumuamua/80k8yRzE">ʻOumuamua</a> as an example. In 2023, he claimed to have recovered material from an interstellar meteor that could be evidence of an alien starship, which some experts criticized as hasty and sensational, and other experts showed that Loeb mistook ordinary truck traffic for a seismic evidence of the meteor, causing him to look hundreds of miles in the wrong direction. </p>