Anna de Graaff

I am a tenure-track group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, independently supported by the Lise Meitner Excellence Program and the ERC Starting Grant FIRST-GIANTS. My interests are in the field of galaxy evolution, all the way from cosmic dawn to the present day.

Observations with state-of-the-art telescopes and instruments are key to my research. I have led several observing programs on JWST, including Cycle 2 program RUBIES, which collected several thousand spectra of distant galaxies and black holes. With these data we study how puzzlingly massive galaxies could already form in the first billion years of the Universe, and when galaxies like our own Milky Way first started to appear. We also discover peculiar new types of objects, such as Little Red Dots, and investigate their role in the formation of supermassive black holes.

Interested in pursuing research in our group? Students at Heidelberg University looking for BSc or MSc thesis projects are encouraged to send me an email. We also have openings for internships through the MPIA, and PhD projects through the IMPRS-HD program; both have annual calls for applications open to students of any nationality/affiliation. Postdoctoral researchers interested in applying for independent fellowships are welcome to enquire.