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About

Hans-Walter Rix is a towering figure in astrophysics, renowned for his transformative work on the structure, dynamics, and evolution of galaxies, particularly the Milky Way. As a key architect of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), he has driven our understanding of how galaxies form and assemble over cosmic time. His most cited contributions include pioneering panoptic spectroscopy through SDSS-V, the first all-sky, multiepoch, optical-to-infrared spectroscopic survey, which is revolutionizing our view of the Milky Way’s stellar populations and the black holes at its center. Rix’s research has garnered over 50,000 citations, reflecting his profound impact on the field. He is particularly celebrated for his work on galactic archeology—using stellar motions and chemical abundances to reconstruct the Milky Way’s merger history—and for developing innovative techniques to measure the masses of supermassive black holes. A director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Rix has received numerous accolades, including the Leibniz Prize, and continues to shape the next generation of astronomers through his visionary leadership and mentorship.