Formation and Evolution of
Galaxies -- mostly from the observational/experimental perspective, using
large datasets from state-of-the-art observatories on Earth and in space
(in synergy with large numerical simulations campaigns through collaborative
efforts)
I am leading the "Extragalactic Astrophysics Group" at ETH. The group
conducts both observational and theoretical/numerical work, mostly
dedicated to understanding the
formation and evolution of galaxies from the early epochs to our time.
Part of the group is involved in large observational astronomical
surveys
(optical and near-infrared, photometric and spectroscopic, groundbased
and
Hubble Space Telescope, HST) to study the nature and origin of galaxies
through observations of nearby and distant galaxies.
I am a core member of the
COSMOS
team. COSMOS is a global collaboration built around an HST Treasury
Program of ACS
images covering an unprecedentedly large 2square-degree field with
extensive
follow-up observations, over a broad range of wavelengths, using
forefront
facilities around the world. Part of my group is focussing on the
analysis of
the COSMOS database. The size of the COSMOS ACS field is chosen so that
the
transverse dimension exceeds 50 comoving Mpc at all redshifts z >
0.5, thus
comfortably exceeding the largest known structures in the Universe,
minimizing
cosmic variance and ensuring that the full range of cosmic environments
is
sampled. COSMOS is thus built to study the galaxy versus large-scale
structure
relation at high redshifts, matching similar local efforts such as the
SLOAN
survey.
COSMOS is supplemented by
zCOSMOS,
a
40'000 redshift survey on the VLT to trace the group environment and
the
large-scale structure of the COSMOS galaxies. I am a member of the
zCOSMOS
Steering Committee, and my group is also involved in the analysis
of the zCOSMOS database.
My current observational research on the local Universe focuses on
environmental effects: I am the PI of
ZENS,
the Zurich ENvironmental Survey, an ESO Large Program of
wide-field imaging of about 200 2dFGRS-2PIGG galaxy groups. ZENS
focuses on
the detailed galaxy structural and colour properties, and HI
group properties, as a function of group mass, density, compactness and
location respective to the large-scale structure.
Part of my group is investigating from a
theoretical/numerical
perspective key questions on the formation and evolution of
galaxies. In particular,
we are
using the
ETH BRUTUS Cluster and the Cray XT-5
at
CSCS
to study
the formation and evolution of massive central galaxies - and their
satellites - in the potentials of galaxy groups.
