Cosimo Bambi received his laurea from Florence University (Florence, Italy) in 2003 and his doctoral degree from Ferrara University (Ferrara, Italy) in 2007. He worked as a postdoctoral research scholar at Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan) in 2007-2008, at IPMU at the University of Tokyo (Kashiwa, Japan) in2008-2011, and in the group of Gia Dvali at LMU Munich (Munich, Germany) in 2011-2012. He joined Fudan University (Shanghai, China) at the end of 2012 as associate professor under the Thousand Young Talents Program of the State Council of the People'sRepublic of China. He was promoted to full professor at the end of 2013 and named Xie Xide Junior Chair Professor of Physics in 2016. In 2015, he was awarded a Humboldt Fellowship to conduct researchat Eberhard-Karls Universitaet Tuebingen (Tuebingen, Germany), which he regularly visited from 2015 to 2018. In 2016, he was awarded an Invitation Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion ofScience (JSPS) to conduct research at Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan). Professor Bambi has received numerous awards, including the Magnolia Silver Award from the Municipality of Shanghai for outstanding contributions to Shanghai's development.
Professor Bambi has worked on a number of topics in the fields of high-energy astrophysics, particle cosmology, and gravity. He has published around 200 papers in refereed journals and authored/edited several academic books with Springer: Introduction to Particle Cosmology: The Standard Model of Cosmology and its Open Problems (Springer-Verlag Heidelberg Berlin, 2016), Astrophysics of Black Holes: From Fundamental Aspects to Latest Developments (Springer-Verlag Heidelberg Berlin, 2016), Black Holes: A Laboratory for Testing Strong Gravity (Springer Singapore, 2017), Introduction to General Relativity (Springer Singapore, 2018), and Tutorial Guide to X-ray and Gamma-ray Astronomy: Data Reduction and Analysis(Springer Singapore, 2020). The book Introduction to General Relativity was published in Chinese by Fudan University Press in 2020 and in Spanish by Editorial Reverte' in 2021. Professor Bambi has alsowritten a popular science book, Niente e' impossibili: Viaggiare nel tempo, attraversare i buchi neri e altre sfide scientifiche (in Italian), published by Il Saggiatore in 2020.
Stavros Katsanevas, professor exceptional class Université de Paris and director of the European Gravitational Observatory (2018-) hosting the Gravitational Wave (GW) antenna Virgo in Pisa/Italy. In the pasrt years, he has been director of the Laboratory of Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology (APC) and co-director of the Laboratory of Excellence (LabEx) UnivEarths (APC and IPGP: Institute of the Physics of the Globe) combining scientific expertise on Earth and environmental sciences, with astroparticle physics and cosmology (2014-2017); coordinator of the cluster of Sciences and Engineering of the community of universities and research institutions that eventually merged in the University of Paris (UdP). First chairman of the European Consortium of Astroparticle Physics (APPEC) gathering the European funding agencies funding the field and proposer and first coordinator of its precursor the EU-funded Network ASPERA (2006- 2012). Deputy director (2002-2012) responsible for Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology of the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3) of CNRS and Director of the CNRS interdisciplinary program "Particules et Univers". President of the administration council of the European Gravitation Observatory (EGO, 2002-2012), chairman of the resource board of the AUGER High Energy Cosmic Ray Observatory. Member of the resource boards of the FERMI satellite, the ANTARES Deep Ocean Observatory, the LSM Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane, the Double-CHOOZ Reactor Neutrino Experiment, CTA and KM3NET. Also, member of the Committee of Large Research Infrastructures of CNRS, the Evaluation Committee for Space Research (CERES) of CNES, and founding Principal Investigator (2007-) of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (KAVLI-IPMU) at Tokyo. Initiator and chief executive of the Public-PrivatePartnerships (GIS) between CNRS and the companies PHOTONIS on photodetection (2005-2009) and SAGEM on extreme optics (2007-2011). His recent research concerns the possibilit of a gravitational wave antenna deplyed at the Moon (project LSGA), the synergies between GW research and Geosciences (project APOGEIA), muon radiography issues of geoscientific and archaeological structures, distributed fiber and/or robotic sensor networks. He has also been the coordinator of the GW International Committee (GWIC) Third Generation (3G) working group on governance. Education and academic career: Diploma of Physics U. of Athens (1975), DEA of Theoretical Physics ENS/Paris7/Paris 11 (1976), Doctorate of 3e cycle Ecole Polytechnique (1979) and PhD from the U. of Athens (1985). Fellow of the French (1976-1979), and Greek Ministry (1979- 1982), of CERN (1983-1986) as well as CERN associate scientist (1991-1992) and corresponding Fellow (1995-1996). Lecturer and associate professor at the U. of Athens (1982-1996), professor for the U. of Lyon (1996-2004) and U. Paris Diderot/U. de Paris (2004-). He has co-authored the paper "GW Physics and Astronomy in the 2020s and 2030s", published by Nature. In the previous century he has worked on particle and astroparticle physics (standard model, supersymmetry and neutrino) at CERN (LEP, ISR, BEBC), Fermilab(E537), Gran Sasso (OPERA) and Greece (Neutrino telescope NESTOR). He is coauthor of over 400 publications, and his scientific achievements include, notable publications on Higgs search and supersymmetry at LEP, QCD at Fermilab, neutrino oscillation at BEBC and OPERA at CERN, the highly used and cited supersymmetry generator at LEP: SUSYGEN, the first design of the CERNGran Sasso neutrino beam, one of the first instalments (2000) of an intelligent sensor network with 1000 nodes (OPERA). He has taught Physics Courses in U. Paris Diderot, Lyon I and Athens, and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris et de Lyon. He has supervised 6 theses. He is also interested on the links between art and science. He is a member of the orientation board of the Foundation Carasso (Paris) and coordinator of a project gathering artists and scientists (Univers 2.0). He has been curator of the exhibition "The Rhythm of space" in Museo delle Grafica , Pisa (2018), and he has written many essays and provided insight for artist exhibitions (Saraceno, Csorgo, Kavalieratos,. . . ). He has obtained the physics prize of the Academy of Athens for his works on superymmetry (2000) and the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite (2011-).
Konstantinos D. Kokkotas is Professor (Chair) of Theoretical Astrophysics, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Tübingen. BSc in mathematics (1981, U. of Thessaloniki), MSc in applied mathematics and astronomy (1985, U. of Wales, Cardiff), PhD in physics (1988, U. of Thessaloniki). From 1990 to 2007, he served in the Physics Department at the University of Thessaloniki as Lecturer, Assistant, and Associate and Full Professor of Relativity. In 2007, he moved to the present position at the University of Tübingen. Since 2010, he has been an adjunct professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, and in 2017, he was elected as honorary professor at the University of Thessaloniki. Professor Kokkotas has supervised over 50 BSc and MSc theses, as well as 14 PhD thesis, and mentored 30 postdoctoral researchers. He has taught general relativity, numerical methods, relativistic astrophysics, classical field theory, and first-year mathematics and physics in both the Universities of Thessaloniki and Tübingen. Professor Kokkotas has served as core member of various international research initiatives (VESF, EU Marie Curie networks, COST actions), PI and spokesperson for the section "Gravitational Waves: Theory and Sources" of the European program "Integrated Large Infrastructure for Astroparticle Physics (ILIAS)," and elected member of national and international scientific societies such as the following: member of the Governing Council of International Society for General Relativity and Cosmology, chairman of the Hellenic Society for General Relativity and Cosmology, member of scientific advisory boards of institutes and departments in various European countries, and managing editor for IJMPD. His research interests are related to theoretical studies of gravitational waves sources with emphasis on the dynamics of neutron stars and black holes. He has published over 200 research articles in refereed journals and more than 20 invited review articles.
