UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

PhD position in astronomical instrumentation (March 2024)

We offer Bachelor and/or Master thesis in the field of obseravtional astrophysics, experimental astronomy/instrumentation, development of software analysis tools. We are primarily interested in topics in the field of star and planet formation mainly observed at high angular resolution. We are users of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, which operates in the near-infrared (1-2.5 µm) and mid-infared (8-12 µm) (e.g. see http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/telescopes/vlti/). Examples of thesis are:

• Reduction and analysis of mid-infrared data taken with VISIR/VLT and CANARICAM/GTC to study the inner regions of circumstellar disks (prerequisites: Astro 1 or Astro 2 lectures; numerical computation)

• Characterization of mid-infrared integrated optics components for interferometry (prerequisites: optics, photonics, interferometry. Interest for laboratory work)

• Exploitation of VLTI interferometric data

Observation (near infrared / radio), instrumentation, theory

Master / Bachelor theses and doctoral theses in the research group of Prof. Dr. J. Stutzki

Within the submm/FIR working group of the I. Physics Institute we are looking for students for PhD, master, and small research projects covering studies of the interaction of star-formation with the structure of the embedding interstellar clouds. Together with international partners our group runs the NANTEN2 Submillimeter Observatory, we are deeply involved in observations with the Herschel Space Observatory and the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy to be launched late 2008. All projects cover direct observations, the analysis of the resulting data, and numerical models trying to explain the observations.

Prerequisites: computer programming experience is very useful.

Contact: PD Dr. Volker Ossenkopf (470-3485), Prof. Dr. Jürgen Stutzki (470-3494) or one of the other group members.

Main research topics of the workgroup of Prof. Schilke are Formation of high-mass Stars, ISM studies, structure of molecular clouds, and astrochemistry.

Master / Bachelor theses and doctoral theses in the research group of Prof. Dr. S. Schlemmer

Main research topics of the workgroup are Interstellar Molecules, High Resolution Spectroscopy, Collision Dynamics.

Main research topics of the workgroup of Prof. Walch-Gassner are structure and dynamics of the interstellar medium. Formation of molecular clouds, stars and star clusters. Turbulence and Cosmic Ray physics.

Superconducting Devices and Mixers Group

The group develops superconducting dectectors for submm/Terahertz astronomy, including high frequency design, fabrication in a cleanroom, testing in the lab etc.