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 KMOS^3D 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 NOEMA^3D 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; News Item). 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

• Formation and evolution of galaxies
• Kinematics, structure, stellar populations, ISM, star formation and AGN activity, feedback processes
• Stellar populations, dynamical, and photoionization modeling
• Multiwavelength observations, especially in the optical/IR/millimeter; imaging, spectroscopy, integral field spectroscopy, interferometry
• AGN and Galactic Center science with the near-IR interferometer GRAVITY at the VLT
• Science cases for future instrumentation at near-IR/optical wavelengths

Publications (ADS)

• Published refereed articles, sorted by date
• Published refereed articles, sorted by citations
• All articles (including submitted/in press on arXiv, and non-refereed articles)
• Star-Forming Galaxies at Cosmic Noon review  –  Förster Schreiber & Wuyts, 2020, ARA&A

Programs and collaborations  (selected, most recent first)

• CRISTAL, a Cycle 8 ALMA Large Program resolving [CII] + dust emission of z ~ 4 – 6 galaxies
• NOEMA^3D, survey with IRAM NOEMA as part of the MPG-IRAM Observatory Program
• KMOS^3D, GTO survey with the VLT/KMOS near-IR multi-IFU
• SINS/zC-SINF, GTO + OpenTime survey with the VLT/SINFONI near-IR IFU
• 3D-HST, a Cycle 18 HST Treasury grism survey
• PHIBSS 1 & 2, surveys with IRAM PdBI and NOEMA
• PEP, the Herschel PACS Evolutionary Probe
• FIRES, Faint InfraRed Extragalactic Survey

Data releases

• SINS/zC-SINF AO survey
• KMOS^3D survey
• ISOCAM data of starburst galaxies
• 3D stellar library

CV    (pdf)

PhD Thesis    (pdf)