Monika Mościbrodzka (pronounced: ) is a Polish astrophysicist who is a professor at

Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, , formerly ) is a public university, public research university located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. RU has seven faculties and more than 24,000 students. Established in 1923, Radboud University has consistentl ...

. She is an expert in general relativistic plasma dynamics and numerical astrophysics. She was part of the

Event Horizon Telescope The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a Astronomical interferometer, telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes. The EHT project combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, wh ...

team who contributed to the first direct image of a black hole, supermassive black hole M87*. She was awarded the 2022

Dutch Research Council The Dutch Research Council (NWO, Dutch: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) is the national research council of the Netherlands. NWO funds thousands of top researchers at universities and institutes and steers the course o ...

Athena Prize and the 2023

Eddington Medal The Eddington Medal is awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society for investigations of outstanding merit in theoretical astrophysics. It is named after Sir Arthur Eddington. First awarded in 1953, the frequency of the prize has varied over the ye ...

of the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

Early life and education

Mościbrodzka earned her doctorate at the

Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences The Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center (Polish language, Polish: ''Centrum Astronomiczne im. Mikołaja Kopernika''), also CAMK or NCAC, is a Polish scientific research institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences headquartered in Warsaw, Pola ...

. Afterwards, she moved to the United States, where she was part of the

University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada, United States. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded ...

and

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Research and career

Mościbrodzka has pioneered the development of numerical astrophysics, which can be used in combination with experimental observations to test

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

. These studies contributed to the first ever direct image of a black hole, specifically, the supermassive black hole at the centre of

Messier 87 Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a Type-cD galaxy, supergiant elliptical galaxy, elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo (constellation), Virgo that contains several trillion s ...

. Mościbrodzka served as coordinator of the

Polarimetric Working Group and performed polarization analysis of the M87 images. In these polarization-resolved images, the lines mark the direction of the oscillations of the electric vector of the electromagnetic waves. Mościbrodzka also develops models of the accretion flows in the jets of black holes. By simulating the plasma, magnetic field dynamics and radiative transfer, Mościbrodzka can predict the signatures of accreting black holes.

Awards

* 2019 Bloomberg 50 * 2022

Athena Award * 2023

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moscibrodzka, Monika Living people Polish astrophysicists Academic staff of Radboud University Nijmegen Women astrophysicists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Polish physicists 21st-century Polish astronomers 21st-century women scientists University of Nevada, Las Vegas people University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni