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Francesco Shankar is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southampton, where he also serves as the professional development lead in the School of Physics and Astronomy. He is a fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, Higher Education Academy, and Royal Astronomical Society. His research focuses on supermassive black hole demographics and galaxy evolution, particularly in high-redshift environments. Shankar is the principal investigator of a significant H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network, one of the largest networks globally working on supermassive black holes. He has a notable record of leadership in outreach projects like 'Astera', aimed at creating an interactive visualizer of the universe. He has held postdoctoral positions at the Ohio State University and at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and has published extensively, ranking in the top 1.5% of scientists across various disciplines based on citation metrics. He has received several prestigious fellowships, including the Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship and the Max-Planck-SHAO Fellowship. Shankar has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Pietro Tacchini Prize for outstanding PhD theses in Italy and the Dean’s Award for his teaching contributions. His educational background includes a PhD from SISSA, and he has been instrumental in guiding students towards successful careers in academia and industry.
University of Southampton • Southampton, England
Leading research projects and teaching in astrophysics, focusing on supermassive black holes and galaxy evolution.