Research Activities  —  Dr. Dr.h.c. N. M. Förster Schreiber


My research centers on the properties and evolution of galaxies. Following initial work on nearby starburst galaxies, my focus shifted to galaxies at redshift z~1–3 and, more recently, my interests have extended to the z~4–7 cosmic epochs. These studies involve detailed spatially-/spectrally-resolved data of individual galaxies as well as global population properties of large statistical samples obtained with infrared, optical, and millimeter instruments. I led the SINS/zC-SINF and KMOS3D near-IR IFU surveys at z~1–3 with SINFONI and KMOS, respectively, at the ESO VLT. At millimeter wavelengths, I was actively involved in the PHIBSS 1 & 2 programs at IRAM and am a core team member of the on-going NOEMA3D survey as part of the MPG-IRAM Observatory Program. Other major programs studying distant galaxies at higher resolution include a ~90-night GTO IFU survey of z~1–3 galaxies with the new ERIS instrument at the VLT, and CRISTAL, an ALMA Cycle 8 Large Program on z~4–6 galaxies.

I also contribute to science cases, reduction & analysis software, and serve on science working groups for instrumentation projects, including VLT/KMOS and ERIS, LBT/ARGOS, the first-light imager and spectrograph MICADO at the the 40-m class European ELT. These instruments and several others used in my research were developed under the leadership of, or with important contributions by, the MPE IR/Submm Group (see here for an overview).

My scientific research was supported by the Minerva fellow program of the Max-Planck-Society (2008-2012), by the Priority Program SPP1177 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (2005-2008), and was recognized by a Honorary Doctor of Science of the University of Bath (2019). In 2022, I was awarded a 5-year European Research Council Advanced Grant for the project GALPHYS exploiting ERIS observations of distant galaxies.

Research Interests

Publications (ADS)

Programs and collaborations  (selected, most recent first)

Data releases

CV    (pdf)

PhD Thesis    (pdf)




N.M. Förster Schreiber
Last modified: Wed Apr 26 2023
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