Michael Wise

STIC Chair

SRON Space Research Organisation Netherlands

Michael Wise is the General and Scientific Director of SRON, Space Research Organisation Netherlands, and Professor of High Energy Astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1992. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Kitt Peak National Observatory, he joined the Chandra X-ray Science Center at MIT, helping build and launch NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. In 2006, he joined ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, working on the design and construction of the International LOFAR Telescope and early SKA development. He served as LOFAR project scientist and Head of the Astronomy division before moving to SRON in 2018 as Director. His research combines radio and X-ray data to study how the gas in galaxies interacts with their central black holes. He currently chairs the Dutch National Council for Astronomy, heads the Dutch delegation to ESA’s Science Programme Committee, and serves on the AUI Board of Trustees.