Ed van den Heuvel

Who is Ed van den Heuvel?

Edward Peter Jacobus van den Heuvel is a Dutch astronomer and emeritus professor at the Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek of the University of Amsterdam.

Van den Heuvel is well known for his work on the formation and evolution of compact astrophysical objects such as neutron stars, black holes, and white dwarfs in binary systems, and for his investigation of gamma ray bursts.

Van den Heuvel studied mathematics, physics en astronomy at the Utrecht University. There, he obtained his PhD degree in 1968 for his research on the rotation of stars. During his career he held positions at the University of California, Utrecht University, Institute for Advanced Study, and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

For his work Van den Heuvel has been awarded with an Honorary Doctorate from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the Spinozapremie and the European Union Descartes Prize. He has also been knighted in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, honorary fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and honorary fellow of the Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India.