PRACE 2024 HPC Excellence Award goes to Professor Luciano Rezzolla

PRACE 2024 HPC Excellence Award goes to Professor Luciano Rezzolla

On February 5, 2025, Luciano Rezzolla, Senior Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), will receive the PRACE HPC Excellence Award 2024. This prestigious award honors groundbreaking research and scientific advancements achieved through the use of high-performance computing (HPC). Rezzolla and his team played a key role in capturing the first-ever images of supermassive black holes and interpreting them through numerical simulations and the development of a theoretical framework that provides deeper insights. These remarkable images were made possible through the international collaboration of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

The EHT images reveal the black holes M87* in the galaxy M87 and Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) at the center of our Milky Way as bright rings surrounding the “shadow of the black hole.” The team led by the theoretical physicist from FIAS and Goethe University made significant contributions to the theoretical modeling of the telescope-captured data. Imaging black holes is an enormous challenge, as little is known about the physical conditions near them and the dynamics of the plasma emitting light before being swallowed by the black hole. Therefore, sophisticated methods and high-performance computing are crucial for astronomical research.

Rezzolla emphasizes that the immense effort behind capturing these images of a supermassive black hole is the result of a tremendous global collaboration among scientists. Interpreting the physical meaning of such an image and determining its implications for our understanding of black holes is only possible through advanced theoretical modeling and high-performance computing. “I feel privileged to have access to these research facilities at FIAS and Goethe University,” Rezzolla states.

The FIAS Fellow will receive the €20,000 award, along with a certificate and an engraved trophy, on February 5, 2025, during the PRACE Intersection Seminar at the Fondation Universitaire in Brussels, Belgium. PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) is a European initiative that consolidates the computing power of high-performance computers across 25 European countries. Rezzolla will present his work in a plenary lecture and considers the award a great honor: “It is a humble recognition of the many efforts in Frankfurt and beyond to harness the power of supercomputers in advancing our understanding of the universe.”

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