Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests:

Structure and evolution of the interstellar medium, formation of molecular clouds and stars, stellar feedback processes, ionization (CRs, UV, etc), masers, astrochemistry

Research Experience:

• 01/2026 - present - Max Planck Research Fellow - Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
• 04/2025 - present - W2 tenure track to W3 Professor of Experimental Physics at I.Physics Institute, University of Cologne
• 06/2023 - 04/2025 - Otto Hahn Postdoctoral Fellowship (between Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn)
• 06/2021 - 06/2023 - Postdoctoral researcher, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Education:

• 06/2021: Dr. rer. nat. in physics, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
• 10/2017: Master of Science in Astrophysics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
• 10/2015: Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Physics, St. Stephen's College, New Delhi, India

Awards and Prizes:

• 2023 Honorable mention for the PhD work (SOFIA-USRA)
• 2022 PhD Prize (German Astronomical Society): Awarded to a young astronomer for the best PhD thesis of the past year.
• 2022 Otto Hahn Award (Max Planck Society): Every year, one Otto Hahn medallist is additionally recognised with the Otto Hahn Award, which provides for a long-term research residency abroad, followed by leadership of a research group at one of the Max Planck Institutes.
• 2022 Otto Hahn Medal (Max Planck Society): For outstanding scientific achievements, mostly in connection to doctoral thesis work
• 2021 Highlight in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal
  Hunting for the elusive methylene radical, Jacob et al. (2021), A&A, 647, A42
• 2021 SOFIA Science Spotlight Volume 6, Number 1: First detection of 13CH in the ISM
• 2020 Highlight in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal
  First detection of 13CH in the interstellar medium; Jacob et al. (2020), A&A, 640, A125
• 2018 Förderpreis: Prize awarded for Master thesis by the Freunde und Förderer des MPIfR
• 2016 Diversity in the Cultures of Physics Grant (Freie University of Berlin and Uppsala University)
• 2015 Asha Chatterjee Prize, Dr. K. Swaminathan Memorial Prize and Tushar Nagia Stephanian Award: For distinguishing oneself in academic work, leadership qualities and achievements co-curricular activities