Science
This table lists some observing programmes that I am or have been involved in:
| Programme Title | Telescope, Instrument | PI, CoI | Observations started in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is there an abundance gradient in the Inner Galactic Bulge? | VLT-UT1 and UT3, ISAAC and CRIRES | CoI | June 2012 |
| Dust production and the close circumstellar environment of the exceptional C-star BH Cru | VLT-UT3, VISIR | PI | March 2012 |
| CRIRES-POP: A library of high resolution spectra in the near-infrared, see also here! | VLT-UT1, CRIRES | CoI | October 2009 |
| The evolutionary state of Miras with changing pulsation periods | Mercator, Hermes | PI | July 2009 |
| Confining lithium-rich phases on the RGB | VLT-UT2, FLAMES-Giraffe | CoI | June 2009 |
| Cool Bottom Processing in Li-rich Galactic bulge AGB stars? | VLT-UT1, CRIRES | PI | June 2009 |
| The variability of the lithium line in C-type AGB stars | Mercator, Hermes | PI | April 2009 |
| Technetium and Cool Bottom Processing in the Galactic S-star V441 Cyg (DDT) | 2.2m on Calar Alto, FOCES | PI | June 2008 |
| Tracing the AGB evolution and dust formation through high resolution near-infrared spectroscopy | VLT-UT1, CRIRES | CoI | June 2008 |
| The mass dependence of Fluorine synthesis in massive Galactic AGB stars | VLT-UT1, CRIRES | PI | May 2008 |
To conduct science with these observations, I collaborate with several scientists, spread over this planet:
- Thomas Lebzelter, Franz Kerschbaum, Josef Hron, Walter Nowotny, Bernhard Aringer, and the AGB research team in Vienna, Austria
- Hans Ulrich Käufl at ESO Garching, Germany
- Mathias Schultheis and Annie C. Robin in Besançon, France
- Joris Blommaert in Leuven, Belgium
- Nils Ryde in Lund, Sweden
- Peter Wood, David Yong, and Amanda Karakas at Mount Stromlo observatory and the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia
- Maurizio Busso, Sara Palmerini, and Roald Guandalini in Perugia, Italy
- Matthias Stute in Thübingen, Germany
- Raghvendra Sahai at JPL, California
- Martin Groenewegen at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels
With other scientists, I have more informal contacts, which are not (yet) manifested in common observing projects or papers.
Instrumentation
I am involved in a few instrumentation projects, with varying intensity. During my PhD thesis, partly carried out at ESO headquarters, I was involved in the CRIRES spectrograph project, in particular during commissioning and science verification runs. See also Chapter 6 of my PhD thesis for my contribution to this spectrograph. At the moment, I contribute to improving the understanding and reduction of CRIRES data via the CRIRES-POP project.
During my post-doc at the Instituut voor Sterrenkunde at the University of Leuven, Belgium, I became involved in the Phase A study of METIS (Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph), the proposed mid-IR instrument for ESO's E-ELT. The documents of the Phase A study have been submitted to ESO on 17 November 2009. In particular, I contributed to the Operational Concepts definition document (calibration of the instrument and correction of observed spectra for telluric absorption lines, etc.). The Department of Astrophysics in Vienna is an official member in the METIS consortium as of May 2012. Our department will contribute to METIS in the science pipeline work package.