THE KARL SCHWARZSCHILD MEDAL 2026 IS AWARDED TO MARTA VOLONTERI
Marta Volonteri
Credit: Jean Mouette /IAP-CNRS-SU
The Karl Schwarzschild Medal 2026 is awarded to Marta Volonteri, Research Director at the CNRS at the Institut d’astrophysique de Paris (IAP), in recognition of her pioneering contributions to our understanding of the formation and evolution of massive black holes and their role in shaping the Universe.
Her work has fundamentally advanced our understanding of how black holes with masses of millions to billions of solar masses form in the centers of galaxies and how their evolution is intimately connected to the assembly of galaxies and large-scale cosmic structures. Through a combination of theoretical modeling and interpretation of observations, she has revealed the crucial interplay between black hole growth, galaxy formation, accretion processes, stellar dynamics, and the evolution of the high-redshift Universe.
Prof. Volonteri obtained her PhD in Astronomy from the University of Milan in 2003. Prior to joining the CNRS in 2012, she was Assistant Professor and subsequently Associate Professor with tenure at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from 2007 to 2011. Earlier in her career, she held research positions at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge and at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The press release by the German Astronomical Society
July 2026