Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
The Max - Planck - Institute for Astrophysics ( MPA often abbreviated as ) is a research institute under the auspices of the Max Planck Society (MPG) and is headquartered in Garching near Munich. The Institute operates primarily basic research in the subject of science in the field of astrophysics.
History
The Institute for Astrophysics emerged from the same department at Göttingen Max Planck Institute for Physics. With the move to Munich in 1958 this was extended to the MPI for Physics and Astrophysics with Werner Heisenberg and Ludwig Biermann as directors. The work on theoretical astrophysics provided fundamental insights into solar physics, plasma physics and stellar structure. 1963 was established as a new part of the Institute, the Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. In 1991 the division into three independent Max Planck Institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Physics, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
Research
The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics deals with the following topics: the sun and the interplanetary space, supernovae, nucleosynthesis, double stars, galaxies, gravitational lenses; physical cosmology; Quantum Mechanics and astrochemistry, and related areas.
The research is primarily devoted to theoretical astrophysics. Because of the close interaction between the different sub- regions and the straddling nature of the research, there is no strict demarcation of the individual areas of research at the Institute.
International Max Planck Research School ( IMPRS )
The MPI is involved in the International Max Planck Research School for Astrophysics, which is located in Garching. Other partners are the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, the Observatory of the University of Munich and the European Southern Observatory. A IMPRS is an English doctoral program that allows a structured promotion. Speaker of the IMPRS is Ralf Bender.
Infrastructure
The Institute is currently headed by four directors: Rashid Sunyaev, Simon White, Guinevere Kauffmann and Eiichiro Komatsu.
The end of 2006 a total of 120 people were employed in the institute, including 46 scientists and 34 junior researchers; came to nine externally funded and 61 visiting scientists during the year.