Since February 2017 I am a professor for theoretical astrophysics at the LMU Munich, leading an ERC funded research group on planet formation.
Moving back to Germany, I worked as a postdoc with Hubert Klahr and Thomas Henning at the MPIA in Heidelberg for 1.5 years.
I spent almost 3 years at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA working with Sean Andrews and up to today keep an affiliation with the CfA as Research Associate for ongoing projects and collaborations.
I was postdoctoral researcher at the LMU Munich and the Excellence Cluster 'Universe' working with Barbara Ercolano.
I got my PhD in Astronomy from the University of Heidelberg, working at the Max-Planck-Institute of Astronomy under the supervision of Kees Dullemond. Afterwards I stayed at the MPIA as a postdoc until June 2011.
I did my undergraduate studies at the University of Würzburg, Germany and my Masters at the State University of New York at Albany.
The general topic of my research is the formation of planets as well as the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks, the birthplaces of planets. More specifically, I am working on the dynamics of solid particles in these disks and how they grow towards planets.
Young stars and the disks around them are built up from interstellar matter which contains only very small, at most micrometer-sized dust particles. This small dust is the material out of which planets form. However the mechanisms which lead to the growth along over 45 orders of magnitude in mass are still poorly understood. The aim of my work is to understand how grains can grow from small to large and how they are distributed and transported in the disk.
These results have a vast impact on planet formation, disk structure and evolution and the chemistry of protoplanetary disks. I also work together with observers in order to compare my models to observational data and thus test the theory behind them. The questions we set out to answer are the following:
Refereed papers:
Citations:
You can download my CV or see all publications on ADS by clicking the buttons below.
Here you can download stills and animations of dust evolution simulations, latex templates, protoplanetary disk schematics. You can also find links to my codes and my Master's and PhD theses.
Working on dustpy
(global dust evolution model), planetesimal formation, and pebble accretion.
Working on vertical and radial transport of solids with particle histories.
Working on simplified dust growth models in multiple dimensions.
Working on models of planetesimal formation & evolution.
Working on disk population synthesis and MCMC fitting.
Dust dynamics in lagrangian codes, vertical shear instability.
Vertical structure of disks & 3D printing
Kinematics of Warped Disks
LMU hosts the group and provides base funding and a PhD position.
The ERC project DustPrints (1.4 Million Euro) currently funds two postdocs and one PhD of the group.
The DFG (German Science Foundation) funds parts of the group through the Origins Cluster, individual project grants, and collaborations through our DFG Research Unit on Transition Disks.