Cosmos Prize
Founder
In 2019, I launched the Cosmos Prize, an initiative for the promotion of scientific culture. I created its first national editions and helped establish it in other countries, and the programme is now endorsed as the Global Cosmos Prize Programme for Science Literacy under the UN International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD), led by UNESCO. Every year two prizes are awarded to outstanding popular science books in physics, astronomy and mathematics: the Cosmos Prize, chosen by a scientific committee, and the Students’ Prize, chosen by an assembly of high-school students. The initiative engages thousands of high-school students in Italy, the Netherlands, France and Spain.
EuCAPT
Founding Director
I was the founding director of the European Consortium for Astroparticle Theory (EuCAPT), that brings together more than 130 European institutions and almost 2000 researchers active in theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology. Our goals are: to increase the exchange of ideas and knowledge; to coordinate scientific and training activities; to help scientists attract adequate resources for their projects; to promote a stimulating, fair and open environment in which young scientists can thrive.
GRAPPA
Founding Spokesperson
I was the founding spokesperson of GRAPPA , the Center of excellence for Gravitation and Astroparticle Physics at the University of Amsterdam. Today, GRAPPA hosts ten core faculty members – S. Ando, D. Baumann, G. Bertone, M.P. Decowski, B. Freivogel, S. Markoff, P. Moesta, S. Nissanke, J. Vink and C. Weniger – as well as many associated scientists from the Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEF), the Anton Pannekoek Institute (API) and the Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITFA).
TeV Particle Astrophysics
Founding Chair
In 2005 I created, together with a team of international colleagues, the conference series TeV Particle Astrophysics (aka TeVPA), for which I acted as founding chair of the organizing committee until 2019. TeVPA is an international conference that provides the stage for the most recent advances in the booming field of Astroparticle Physics. The first edition of the conference took place at Fermilab, Chicago IL in 2005. Since then, it has been held every year at different institutions and conference centers around the world.
Dark Machines
Founding Member
I was a founding member of Dark Machines, a research collective of physicists and data scientists aimed at answering cutting edge questions about Dark Matter with advanced data science techniques.