Alex Filippenko is a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, holding the Class of 1954 Chair and serving as the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences within the Space Science faculty. He earned a B.A. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 1984, followed by a Miller Fellowship for Basic Research in Science at UC Berkeley from 1984 to 1986. Filippenko joined the Berkeley Astronomy Department as an adjunct assistant professor in 1986, advancing to assistant professor in 1987, associate professor in 1988, full professor in 1992, and distinguished professor in 2022. He chaired the department from January to June 2019 and has held positions such as Miller Senior Fellow from 2017 to 2021.

Filippenko's research centers on observational studies of supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, cosmology, quasars, active galactic nuclei, and black holes at optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared wavelengths. He was a key member of both teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the Universe in 1998, driven by dark energy—a breakthrough recognized as Science magazine's top discovery of the year, leading to the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the teams' leaders, the Gruber Cosmology Prize shared in 2007, and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics shared in 2015. He developed the 0.76-meter Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) at Lick Observatory, which has discovered over 1000 nearby supernovae and classified hundreds of objects. With over 1200 research papers garnering more than 218,000 citations (Google Scholar) and an h-index of 197, his influence is profound. Notable books include Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, Black Holes Explained, Skywatching: Seeing and Understanding Cosmic Wonders, and The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium (textbook, 5th edition). An exceptional educator, he has been voted Berkeley's Best Professor nine times, received the American Astronomical Society Education Prize in 2022, the Carnegie/CASE National Professor of the Year award in 2006, and many other teaching honors. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015, Filippenko has delivered over 2000 public lectures, produced five Great Courses video series, and appeared in more than 120 television documentaries.

Professional Email: afilippenko@berkeley.edu