Greater Munich Metropolitan Area
I am an astronomer who also builds instruments. I am Principal Investigator for two adaptive optics instruments: ERIS, a near infrared imager and integral field spectrograph for the VLT, and MICADO, a first light camera for the E-ELT. These are complex multi-national projects: about 60 people work on ERIS in Germany, Italy, UK, Switzerland, and the Netherlands; while MICADO involves about 80 people in Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, and Italy. My tasks include: providing oversight on all aspects of the project; linking the engineering, operational, and scientific aspects; identifying and resolving potential obstacles (scientific, technical, managerial, or sociological) before they become problems; and facilitating effective communication both internally among the consortium partners, and externally with the European Southern Observatory. On the astrophysical side, my main interest is in the gas and stars around supermassive black holes in active galaxies. Our current LLAMA project is a collaboration between people mostly in Germany, Brazil, and the US. To study the small scales in the centres of galaxies, I make use of adaptive optics systems which correct the blurring caused by the atmosphere to provide superb image quality. A few selected publications are listed below. A complete list of my referred publications is at the link below.
Joined MPE as a postdoc, tenured since 2008. Leading science and instrumentation projects as principle investigator