Prof. Mario Livio is a senior astrophysicist and Head of the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the institute which conducts the scientific program of the Hubble Space Telescope. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics from Tel Aviv University in Israel, was a professor in the Physics Dept. of the Technion-Israel Institute of technology from
1981 till 1991, and joined STScI in 1991. Prof. Livio has published over 400 scientific papers and received numerous awards for research, for excellence in teaching, and for his books.
His interests span a broad range of topics in astrophysics, from cosmology to the emergence of intelligent life. Prof. Livio has done much fundamental work on the topic of accretion of mass onto black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs, as well as on the formation of black holes and the possibility to extract energy from them.
During the past decade Prof. Livio’s research focused on supernova explosions and their use in cosmology to determine the rate of expansion of the universe, and the nature of the “dark energy” that causes the cosmic expansion to accelerate. He has also worked on the survival of extrasolar planets.
His most recent book, “Is God A Mathematician?”, was selected by the Washington Post as one of the best books of 2009.