Research

My primary research interest concerns galaxy formation and evolution, and how present-day properties of galaxies can be used as indicators for their formation history. As a theoretician and computational scientist, I model physical processes and study cosmological simulations to better understand the underlying physics. An important aspect for me is also appropriately comparing the modeled or simulated results to observations.

I am a part of the CAST (Computational ASTrophysics) and DRAGONS (Dynamics, enviRonment, and Assembly of Galaxies from Observations and Numerical Simulations) groups at the University Observatory Munich. Through these, I work with the hydrodynamical cosmological simulation suite Magneticum Pathfinder, which includes the largest baryonic simulation volume performed to date, and with the COMPASS suite of high-resolution hydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in simulations. I am also a part of the MAGPI collaboration (Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral Field Spectroscopy), a MUSE Large Program with the aim of studying galaxies in environments around 3–4 billion years ago through spatially-resolved spectroscopy, and of the GECKOS collaboration (Generalizing Edge-on galaxies and their Chemical bimodalities, Kinematics, and Outflows out to Solar environments), a MUSE Large Program with the aim of studying edge-on disk galaxies in the local Universe through high-resolution spatially-resolved spectroscopy. Finally, I maintain the Cosmological Webportal, which provides simulation data to the scientific community via a web interface.

Fields of Research

• Kinematic tracers: planetary nebulae & globular clusters
• Galaxy shapes & kinematics
• Low-surface-brightness features in the outskirts of galaxies

More details on some of these topics can be found at the DRAGONS website.