About
Prof. Michael Backes combines high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, millimetre-wave astronomy, and advanced computational methods to study active galactic nuclei, relativistic jets, and transient phenomena to understand how supermassive black holes accelerate particles and generate highly variable emission. His work spans the scientific exploitation of flagship observatories including H.E.S.S., the Southern African Large Telescope and the Cherenkov Telescope Array, linking observational astronomy, data-intensive analysis, and international instrumentation projects. He leads major initiatives in African astronomy, including the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT) as Co-PI, while advancing astronomy capacity in Namibia and across Africa. He has played a leading role in strengthening internationally connected astrophysics and scientific computing in Namibia and across Africa through the development of research infrastructure, institutional partnerships, and long-term international collaborations that have strengthened Africa's participation in frontier astrophysics.
He is a Professor & inaugural Research Chair at the University of Namibia (NAM). There, he heads the Namibian H.E.S.S. group, Astrophysics Research, and of the Virtual Institute for Scientific Computing and Artificial Intelligence. Further, he is an Extraordinary Professor at North-West University (ZA).
At Oxford he is an Academic Visitor in Astrophysics, collaborating on the Africa Millimetre Telescope and the ERC BlackHolistic transient and millimetre-wave astronomy programmes as well as on gamma-ray astronomy with H.E.S.S. and high-energy astrophysics.
He held an Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) Travel Grant, and was Namibian-PI on the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project Namibian participation in the H.E.S.S. observatory 2019-2021 (PI Garret Cotter), and is Co-Investigator of the recently awarded ERC Synergy grant Blackholistic (PIs: H. Falcke, S. Markoff, Rob Fender) and Co-PI of the Africa Millimetre Telescope.
His scientific and leadership contributions have received international recognition, including election to the Global Young Academy and the Annie Maunder Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.
He obtained his MSc and PhD from TU Dortmund University on topics of multi-wavelength and gamma-ray astronomy in 2008 and 2012, respectively, and spent study visits at the Ruhr-University Bochum (D) in 2005 and the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2006.
His academic appointments and career progression are summarised on the Academic Career page, with his leadership and committee appointments summarized under Leadership & Service.
His current Research aims to exploit the synergy between gamma-ray and millimetre-wave observations, advanced computational methods and next-generation observatories to study transient black-hole phenomena while establishing a multi-wavelength observatory in Namibia and strengthening Africa's role in global astronomy.
Affiliations
Professor & Research Chair
Head of Astrophysics Research
Head of Virtual Institute for Scientific Computing and Artificial Intelligence
Department of Physics, Chemistry and Material Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Engineering and Natural Science, University of Namibia, Windhoek (NAM)
Extraordinary Professor
Centre for Space Research, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom (ZA)
Alumnus and former Executive Committee Member (2021–2023)
Global Young Academy, Halle a.d. Saale (D)
Regular Associate
High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (I)