Current and past research

• GALEV evolutionary synthesis models
• PhD-project: Galaxy evolution from photometric redshifts
• Diploma thesis: Multiwavelength study and optical spectroscopy of X-Ray selected Active Galactic Nuclei
• Ongoing projects and collaborations
• Research interests and Research goodies

GALEV models on the web  -  www.galev.org

I'm responsibly for operating and maintaining the now official GALEV website that can be found at http://www.galev.org.
From this webpage you can download previously published models and data, and also run your own GALEV model interactively.

PhD-project: Galaxy evolution from photometric redshifts

My PhD-project supervised by Prof. Dr. Uta Fritze and Prof. Dr. Elias Brinks deals with high-redshift galaxies. The aim is to use our group's chemically consistent evolutionary synthesis GALEV code to compute a large grid of galaxy models of different hubble types, include bursts of various strengths and at different times to determine photometric redshifts for large galaxy samples from deep surveys, e.g. the Hubble (Ultra) Deep Fields. We will then derive these galaxies' star formation and mass assembly histories to gain a deeper insight into the evolution of galaxies in the early universe.

Until now I have developed a new photometric redshift code GAZELLE, and successfully participated in the first stage of the "Photometric Accuracy Testing Project" (PI H. Hildebrandt). First tests and results look very promising and scientific results will become public shortly.

Results and Highlights so far

• Accounting for subsolar metallicities as commonly found in both nearby low-mass galaxies and galaxies at high redshift is crucial for obtaining accurate and unbiased photometric redshifts. Relying on solar-metallicity templates only results in generally underestimated photometric redshifts and hence introduces systematic uncertainties into all subsequent analyses. --> Read more !
• Mass functions from COSMOS, GOODS, and HUDF --> coming soon (expected Feb/Mar)
• Built-up of Hubble Sequence galaxies --> coming soon (expected Mar/Apr)

Besides that I'm involved in a program studying the star cluster formation history of early-type galaxies (Es and S0s) by means of combined optical and near-infrared broad-band photometry.

Diploma thesis

Subject of my diploma thesis supervised by Prof. Kollatschny was

Multiwavelength study and optical spectroscopy of X-Ray selected Active Galactic Nuclei

Click here for a summary in pdf-format.

Ongoing projects and collaborations

• Thorsten Lisker (PI, Uni Heidelberg), Hagen Meyer, and several grad students in the Heidelberg group:
  Stellar populations in Virgo dwarf and giant galaxies
• Jay Gallagher (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison), Uta Fritze (Univ. Hertfordshire)
  Star Formation in the extreme outskirts of galaxies
• Paul Kotze, Renee Kraan-Korteweg, Patrick Woudt (all Univ. Cape Town, South Africa), Uta Fritze (Univ. Hertfordshire)
  Galaxy Transformation in clusters

Former projects I was involved in

• Hagen Meyer (PI, Uni Heidelberg, Germany), Polychronis Papaderos (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Spain),
  Yuri Izotov (Main Astronomical Observatory, Kiev, Ukraine):
  The Luminosity-Metallicity Relation for star-forming dwarf galaxies
• Barbara Cunow (PI, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa), Hagen Meyer (Uni Heidelberg, Germany),
  Uta Fritze (Uni. Hertfordshire), Polychronis Papaderos (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Spain):
  Stellar Populations and Dust Extinction in Disk Galaxies

Research interests

• Galaxy Formation and Evolution from the early universe until today
• Stellar Populations in galaxies of different Hubble types and environments
• Star Formation and its Feedback processes
• Observation and modelling of Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) of galaxies and star clusters from
  Ultraviolett to Infrared (U through K)
• Star Formation in different environments from galaxy mergers to the very outskirts of spiral galaxies
• Dust Absorption and Reemission in galaxies along the Hubble sequence, MIR to sub-mm modelling of galaxies
• Galaxy Transformation Scenarios in galaxy clusters

Research Goodies:

• Larger Findingcharts for Faint Infrared Standards from Persson et al, 1998 (PDF-File, 1.6MB)
• coming Soon: tabcalc
• coming Soon: creapp