EIICHIRO KOMATSU

Eiichiro Komatsu is Director of the Department of Physical Cosmology at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) in Germany and Senior Fellow at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) at the University of Tokyo. He holds an honorary professorship at Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich. His work focuses on understanding the universe's origins and evolution through cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation studies, inflationary cosmology, and large-scale structure analysis.

Education: PhD in Science (2001) from Tohoku University, Japan, with a thesis on non-Gaussian fluctuations in the CMB. Master's (1999) and Bachelor's (1997) degrees in Science from Tohoku University.

Research Interests:

• Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies and polarization
• Inflationary theory and early universe physics
• Dark matter and dark energy
• Large-scale structure formation
• Cosmological parameter estimation

Awards: Recipient of prestigious honors including the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2018), Gruber Cosmology Prize (2012), and multiple national and international awards recognizing contributions to cosmology and astrophysics.

Grants and Funding: Lead or co-investigator on numerous grants, including the European Union's CMB-INFLATE project (€73,500) and the German Excellence Cluster ORIGINS (€7.5M annual contribution). Managed over $1.3M in US grants during his tenure at the University of Texas.

Professional Activities: Editor for Astronomy and Astrophysics Review and Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. Serves on review panels for NASA, ESA, and the European Research Council. Active in public outreach, including a monthly column in the Munich Japanese Society Newsletter and authoring popular science books.

Labs/Teams: Founded the Texas Cosmology Center (2010–2012) and led the WMAP Science Team analysis. Currently oversees MPA's cosmology research and collaborates with global initiatives like LiteBIRD (CMB polarization satellite) and HETDEX (galaxy survey).