The Optical and Interpretative Astronomy group at MPE and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Observatory is led by Ralf Bender. The research activities of the group are centered on the structure and evolution of galaxies, and their large scale distribution, supermassive black holes and the dark components of the universe, i.e. Dark Matter and Dark Energy. The hardware/software activities involve the construction of front-line optical and near-infrared instruments to be used at the VLT, the VST and the HET telescopes, and software for the automatic reduction of the data. The education activities through the link to the Ludwig-Maximillian University count lectures for the Physics courses, the supervision of Diploma-, Bachelor-, Master- and Ph.D.-students and the organization of the IMPRS. OpInAs has close ties to the associated groups of Ortwin Gerhard (Galaxy Dynamics), Sadegh Khochfar (Galaxy Simulations) and Jochen Weller (Cosmology).

last update: 05/2010, editor of this page: Roberto Philip Saglia