The modest professor downplayed the significance of his tenure, saying simply that his research will continue on its present path.

"It's not as if I reached any important milestone," he said. "I hold the view that tenure is just a tool you can use. It allows you the freedom not to worry about what other people think about your work."

In addition to his examination of the early life of the universe, Loeb studies gravitational lensing, a technique that offers astronomers crisp pictures of distant structures using light bent around the sun and other cosmic bodies close to the earth.

Loeb said he is impressed by the resources at Harvard's Center for Astrophysics, which is partially funded by the Smithsonian Institute.

"It's the biggest collection of astronomers in the U.S.," the professor said.

Loeb, who is married and lives in Cambridge, moved to the United States in 1988.

He attended college and received his Ph.D. at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem