Andreas Korn

Stars like the Sun are the cool (~6000 K) objects I study and the Milky Way is my playground. The main technique I use is spectroscopy, and my research field is called stellar archaeology.

If I don't do research, I teach, do outreach, sing or travel.

I'm a stellar spectroscopist/Galactic archaeologist trying to decipher the origin and evolution of the chemical elements and the Milky Way Galaxy. One of my current big-science projects is ESA's Galactic Surveyor Gaia (2013-2019, plus extensions). Gaia is expected to measure the 3D positions and space motions of more than 1,000,000,000 (> 1 billion!) stars in the Galaxy.

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 P2's "Institutet" on the topic of "galaxy cannibalism" (http://t.sr.se/1Cruz7p). In 2015, the work of my PhD student Bea Villarroel made the front page of 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 300-night 100,000-star survey at the Very Large Telescope (2012-2017), and 4MOST, a multi-object spectrograph to be put on the VISTA 4m telescope (first light in 2024). 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).