Debora Sijacki

Debora Sijacki is Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge (KICC) and a Professor of Astrophysics and Cosmology at the Institute of Astronomy (IoA) at the University of Cambridge. Prior to becoming Director, she was Deputy Director of KICC. After completing her PhD studies at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany for which she was recognized with the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, Sijacki spent her postdoctoral years as an STFC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the IoA and as a Hubble Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University.

Sijacki is a theoretical astrophysicist who develops numerical models of the Universe that capture the formation and growth of cosmic structures with an unprecedented level of realism. In 2026, she was awarded the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for her outstanding contributions to our understanding of the role that black holes play in the evolution of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the Universe.