Bio Sketch

I earned my Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Göttingen in Germany with a focus in neuroscience. After an internship at the European Space Agency (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, I shifted my focus to astrophysics and pursued a Master's degree at the University of Heidelberg. I completed my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, where I worked on both the high-redshift universe with Joseph Hennawi, studying the earliest quasars and supermassive black holes, and the local universe with Hans-Walter Rix, developing data-driven models of stars in our own Galaxy. In 2019, I was awarded both the NASA Hubble Fellowship and the Pappalardo Fellowship to continue my research at MIT. I joined the MIT Physics faculty as an assistant professor in 2023.

Select Honors and Awards

2025: Ludwig Biermann Award, German Astronomical Society
2023: Otto Haxel Award for Physics, German Physical Society
2020: Otto Hahn Medal, Max Planck Society
2020: IAU PhD Prize, International Astronomical Union
2020: Doctoral Thesis Award, German Astronomical Society
2020: KlarText Prize for Physics, Klaus Tschira Foundation

• Download my CV