Anna de Graaff

I am an independent research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. My interests are in the field of galaxy evolution, in particular the structural evolution of galaxies across cosmic time, their mass assembly histories, and the growth of their central black holes.

Spectroscopic surveys are key to my research. During my PhD I worked with the LEGA-C team on dynamical scaling relations, and subsequently performed a comparison with the EAGLE simulations. Currently my main focus is on surveys using the JWST NIRSpec instrument. As member of the NIRSpec GTO team and PI of JWST Cycle 2 Program RUBIES, I have collected over 10,000 spectra of distant galaxies and black holes together with my collaborators, to shed light on the formation of galaxies in the early Universe.

I was recently awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the FIRST-GIANTS project, which will focus on answering how puzzlingly massive galaxies could already form in the first billion years of the Universe. There are several open opportunities for PhD and postdoc positions, as well as MSc thesis projects, in the group starting from autumn 2026.