Heino Falcke is Professor of Astroparticle Physics and Radio Astronomy at the Institute for Mathematics, Astronomy and Particle Physics (IMAPP) of the Faculty of Science at Radboud University in Nijmegen and is visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn. He studies black holes and high-energy elementary particles, using the entire range of theoretical, computational, observational, and experimental astrophysics. As a speaker and author, he is engaged in communicating science to the public.
His scientific achievements earned him knightly accolades from the Dutch King. He received the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands, and the Academy Award of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Henry-Draper medal of the US National Academy of Sciences for his pioneering work for imaging black holes. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The International Astronomical Union named asteroid 12654 (Heinofalcke) after him.