Simon Frederik Portegies Zwart - Curriculum Vitae#
Simon Portegies Zwart (1965) obtained his Master degree in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Amsterdam, and his PhD at Utrecht University (1996), with thesis advisor Prof. F. Verbunt, on the PhD thesis “Interacting Binaries”.
He was awarded postdoctoral positions in the Netherlands (1996-1997), Japan (Tokyo, 1997-1998) and the USA (MIT and Boston University, 1998 - 2002). In 2002 he was awarded the prestigious Royal Netherlands Academy (KNAW) 5-yr Felowship, allowing to return to the University of Amsterdam, on a tenure-track Assistant Professor position (2002-2007), followed by tenure on this position (2007 - 2009).
During his postdoctoral years (1996 - 2002) he specialized in computational astrophysics: computation of the (gravitational) dynamical evolution of dense star clusters, in which the internal evolution of stars and binaries also was included. His aim was to gain insight in how such coupled dynamical and stellar evolution may lead to runaway stellar collisions and the formation of collapsed objects: stellar black holes and binaries, with masses of tens to hundreds of solar masses. He predicted in 2000 that the mergers of such binaries may lead to Gravitational Waves (GWs) detectable on Earth. In 2002 he predicted that runaway collisions may also lead to the formation of Intermediate-mass black holes (10^4 to 10^5 solar masses), and in 2004: to formation of supermassive black holes, such as found in the centres of galaxies.
In 2009 he accepted a full professorship at Leiden University, to set up a group of computational astrophysics. Over the years, he built a very strong international reputation in his field. This is illustrated by: positions of visiting scientist or visiting professor at a number of universities and institutes worldwide in the period 2013-2022 (Japan, Canada, Italy). Also by: his position as President of the Commission Computational Astrophysics of the International Astronomical Union (2015-2018) and editorships of major journals in his field: Editor in Chief of the “Journal of Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology” (Springer, 2013-2020), Editor of the journal “New Astronomy” (Elsevier, since 2020). Under his guidance 18 students from a variety of countries obtained a PhD degree. Presently he is guiding 6 PhD students. He organized or co-organized 22 international scientific meetings all over the world (France, Chili, India, Italy, USA, China, Czech Republic, Japan, Germany, Kazachstan). One of his most important international contributions is the initiation and development of the Astronomical Multipurpose Software Environment (AMUSE), which is described under point 4.4, and is a great service to the Computational Astrophysics community worldwide. A new version of the 2018 AMUSE textbook will come out at IOP in 2026. AMUSE is also useable in other fields of science, e.g. Oceanography (OMUSE). He dedicates much time to outreach, in writing, talks and on popular science programs on Netherlands TV.
