Andreas Korn

Stjärnor som vår sol är de objekt jag ämnar mig åt in min forskning och Vintergatan är min arbetsplats. Jag använder mig oftast av spektroskopiska tekniker (analys av stjärnornas regnbågeljus) och mitt forskningsfält kallas för Vintergatsarkeologi. Det finns mycket vi redan vet, men minst lika mycket som kräver mer arbete för att kunna kallas för kunskap.

När jag inte forskar, undervisar jag, populariserar astronomi (se tex https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6025389), sjunger eller reser.

I'm a stellar spectroscopist/Galactic archaeologist trying to decipher the origin and evolution of the chemical elements and the Milky Way Galaxy. Discoveries I have been involved in include the (then) most pristine star in the Milky Way (Christlieb et al. 2002) and the stellar take of lithium which is a contender for solving the cosmological lithium problem (Korn et al. 2006). A little off-topic for a stellar person, I have also helped to highlight the importance of environment for unification schemes of Active Galactic Nuclei (Villarroel & Korn 2014).

One of my current big-science projects is ESA's Galactic Surveyor Gaia (in operation 2013-2025). Gaia measures the 3D positions and space motions of more than 1,500,000,000 (> 1.5 billion!) stars in the Galaxy. The fourth Gaia Data Release is currently in the making.

I have a passion for public outreach. As an example, my work was featured in SVT Rapport in April 2018 (see https://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/ny-tredimensionell-bild-av-vintergatan). Earlier that month, I gave a talk about my Galactic research on a Finland ferry (as part of SciCruise, an addition to UU's SciFest). I also gave an astronomical introduction to a concert by Radiokören (Stockholm) in May 2014. In November of that year, I was interviewed by Swedish Radio P3's "Institutet" on the topic of galaxy cannibalism (https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6025389). The work of my PhD student Bea Villarroel made the front page of Nature Physics and Forskning & Framsteg (http://fof.se/tidning/2015/2/artikel/sokandet-efter-kvasarernas-innersta).

Two, more down-to-Earth, projects I help to make happen are the Gaia-ESO Survey, a 360-night 100,000-star survey at the Very Large Telescope (2012-2018), and 4MOST, a multi-object spectrograph to be put on the VISTA 4m telescope (first light in 2025). The latter will take spectra of between 10 and 20 million stars.

With more than 20 million SEK in PI funding, I have been quite successful in raising money for me and my group. Furthermore, I am Co-I on a Wallenberg grant totalling 34 MSEK (PI Sofia Feltzing, Lund University; 2014-2018).