Paola Caselli receives Karl Schwarzschild Medal#

Academia Europaea is pleased to announce that the German Astronomical Society (AG) has awarded the prestigious Karl Schwarzschild Medal 2025 to Prof. Dr. Paola Caselli MAE, Director of the Center for astrochemical studies (CAS) at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, for her groundbreaking work in the fields of astrochemistry and star formation.

Paola Caselli is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching and Honorary Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She was elected as member of Earth and Cosmics Sciences section of Academia Europaea this year. She has previously conducted research at Harvard University, the University of Leeds, the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri in Florence, and the University of California at Berkeley, among others. Her scientific focus is on the physico-chemical processes in dense molecular clouds, particularly the early phases of star and planet formation. Paola Caselli combines innovative observational methods with theoretical modelling and laboratory astrochemistry. She has contributed significantly to understanding the chemical processes and the role of gas-dust interactions in interstellar and protostellar regions.

Karl Schwarzschild Medal#

The Karl Schwarzschild Medal, named after the astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild, is an award presented by the Astronomische Gesellschaft (German Astronomical Society) to eminent astronomers and astrophysicists.

The German Astronomical Society awards the Karl Schwarzschild Medal to recognize outstanding scientific contributions. The awarding of the medal is accompanied by the Karl Schwarzschild Lecture held at the annual meeting of the AG. The award winner is nominated by the AG's Executive Board.

Past Academia Europaea awardees of the Karl Schwarzschild Medal (with the title of the Karl Schwarzschild Lecture)#

2020 Friedrich-Karl Thielemann MAE, Origin of the Elements in the Universe
2011 Reinhard Genzel MAE, The Massive Black Hole and Galaxies
2008 Rashid Sunyaev MAE, The Richness and Beauty of the Physics of Cosmological Recombination
2005 Gustav Andreas Tammann MAE, The Ups-and-Downs of the Hubble Constant
2002 Charles Hard Townes MAE, The Behavior of Stars Observed by Infrared Interferometry
2000 Roger Penrose MAE, The Schwarzschild Singularity: one Clue to Resolving the Quantum Measurement Paradox
1994 Joachim Trümper MAE, X-rays from Neutron Stars
1989 Martin Rees MAE, Is there a massive black hole in every galaxy
1987 Lodewijk Woltjer MAE, The future of European astronomy
1974 Cornelis de Jager MAE, Dynamik von Sternatmosphären
1971 Antony Hewish MAE, Three years with pulsars