Garik Israelian (, born 1963) is an Armenian-Spanish astrophysicist and founder of the Starmus Festival. He and colleagues found the first observational evidence that supernova explosions are responsible for the formation of stellar-mass black holes. Early life Garik Israelian was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1963. He graduated from Yerevan State University in 1987 with a First Class Honors degree in Physics, and completed his PhD in 1992. Career Since 1997, Israelian has worked at the Institute of Astrophysics, Canary Islands (IAC), and has also worked as a lecturer and researcher at Utrecht University; Free University of Brussels; and University of Sydney. Israelian has published over 500 articles. In 1999, he and colleagues found the first observational evidence, based on data from the W. M. Keck Observatory, that supernova explosions are responsible for the formation of black holes. In 2001, he proposed the so-called "Lithium-6 test" to determine if a star has engulfed a planet or other gaseous or solid matter. In 2009, he and colleagues discovered that stars with planets, such as the sun, tend to have much less lithium. Starsounds In 2005, Garik Israelian compiled a library of acoustic sound waves produced within the bodies of stars. This research project inspired Dr. Israelian to join forces with astrophysicist Brian May to create a new festival that would bring the stars together with music, and so Starmus was born. The main concept of the "Starsounds" project was explained in the lecture of Dr. Israelian "Our Acoustic Universe" and published in the book 50 Years of Man in Space (lectures of Starmus I, edited by Israelian and Brian May, 2014). In 2013, Brian May and Tangerine Dream used "Starsounds" in their composition "Supernovae". In 2016, Brian Eno arranged some of Israelian's star recordings into a composition titled "Starsounds". Starmus Festival In 2011, Garik Israelian founded the Starmus Festival, an event about astronomy and music. Awards In 2010, Michel Mayor, Garik Israelian, and Nuno Santos were awarded the Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize "[f]or their important contribution in the study of relation between planetary systems and their host stars." In 2014, Israelian received The Canary Islands Gold Medal, awarded by the government of the Canary Islands. On 20 June 2016, the International Astronomical Union and the Minor Planet Center officially renamed asteroid (21057) 1991 GJ8 to Garik Israelian in honor of Israelian. The citation was written by astronomer Joel Parker and Queen