Dr. Alexei V. Filippenko

Class of 2024-25

Distinguished Professor of Astronomy
Department of Astronomy, College of Letters and Science
University of California, Berkeley

Alexei V. Filippenko is renowned for his research on supernovae, black holes, active galaxies, gamma-ray bursts, neutron stars, dark matter and observational cosmology.

He was a pivotal member of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe in 1998, a groundbreaking achievement that contributed to the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics to the teams’ leaders for discovering gravitationally repulsive dark energy.

Filippenko earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.

He holds a Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professorship in the Physical Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has made significant contributions to the field of astrophysics.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Honors include the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching/Council for Advancement and Support of Education National Professor of the Year, the Gruber Cosmology Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

He has authored nearly 1,000 peer-reviewed articles and has contributed extensively to conference proceedings and book chapters.

Filippenko will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences.