Born and educated in Japan. After obtaining his PhD in astrophysics at Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, in 1995, he moved to Europe, working at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge in UK (1995-2005), at the Max Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik in Germany (2005-2008), and at INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna in Italy (2008-2009). In 2010 he joined ICREA, to work as an ICREA Research Professor at the Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB). His main research area is X-ray astronomy on active galaxies and cosmic black holes.

Research interests

Kazushi Iwasawa works in the field of observational astronomy, mainly using X-ray observatories in space. His primary interest is in the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes powering active galaxies. These active galaxies are generally strong X-ray emitters, which makes X-ray observations a powerful probe of black hole activity even at great cosmological distances. He is involved in several multi-wavelength survey projects which attempt to establish cosmic evolution of the black hole activity and its relation to the galaxy formation. Currently most active collaborations include Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS), for investigating the thema through the aspect of galaxy mergers, and the Subaru HyperSuprime Cam (HSC) survey, focusing on high redshift quasars. He is also interested in observational study of relativistic effects operating at region close to the black hole in active galaxies through X-ray spectroscopy.