On 5 February 2025, Luciano Rezzolla, Senior Fellow at Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), will receive the PRACE HPC Excellence Award 2024, which recognises groundbreaking research and scientific advances through the use of high-performance computing (HPC). Rezzolla and his team were involved in the first images of supermassive black holes and made their interpretation possible with the help of numerical simulations and the construction of a theoretical framework that is able to interpret them and extract physical information. The fascinating images were taken as part of the international collaboration on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

The EHT images show the black holes M87* in the M87 galaxy and Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) in the centre of our Milky Way as a bright ring surrounding the ‘shadow of the black hole’. The team led by the theoretical physicist from FIAS and Goethe University contributed significantly to the theoretical modelling of the data recorded by the telescopes. Imaging black holes is not easy, because of the very limited knowledge we have on the physical conditions near the black hole and the dynamics of the plasma as it emits light before being accreted by the black hole. For this reason, sophisticated numerical methods and high-performance computing facilities are crucial to make any progress and learn about the astronomical observations.

Rezzolla emphasises that the epic effort of these images of a supermassive black hole was made possible by the tremendous joint effort of many scientists across the planet. Interpreting the physical significance of such an image and determining its implications for our understanding of black holes is only possible through advanced theoretical modelling and high-performance computing, he says. ‘I feel privileged to have access to these research facilities at FIAS and Goethe University,’ says Rezzolla.

The FIAS Fellow will receive the prize of 20,000 euros, including a certificate and an engraved trophy, on 5 February 2025 at the PRACE Intersection Seminar at the Fondation Universitaire in Brussels (Belgium). PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) is a European initiative to pool the computing power of high-performance computers in 25 European countries. Rezzolla will present his work in a plenary lecture – he feels deeply honoured by this prize: ‘It is a humble example of the numerous efforts, in Frankfurt and elsewhere, aimed at using supercomputers to deepen our understanding of the Universe’.

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