Sera Markoff (https://www.seramarkoff.com) is a professor of theoretical astrophysics and astroparticle physics at the University of Amsterdam. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, she was educated in the US (SB Physics from MIT, MSc/PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics from the University of Arizona in 2000) then bounced back and forth across the pond, taking research fellowships first to the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, and then back to MIT in the US. She joined the faculty in Amsterdam in 2006 and helped establish the Gravitation and AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam (GRAPPA) centre of excellence in 2012.

Sera's research focuses on the extreme physics occurring around compact objects like black holes, and the role black holes play in the Universe by dramatically affecting their surroundings. She has won numerous awards, including the top Dutch Research Council personal career grants VIDI and VICI, the Bruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society and the Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics as part of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (EHTC), and was named Fellow of the American Physical Society and Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. She has also won several awards for her community outreach. Within the EHTC she most recently served as vice-chair of the EHT Science Council, and co-coordinates the Multi-Wavelength Science Working Group.