Guinevere Kauffmann

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Guinevere Alice Mei-Ing Kauffmann (born December 26, 1968 in California ) is an American astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching .

Live and act

Born in California, Guinevere Kauffmann spent her school years and the first years of study in South Africa. Kauffmann studied at the University of Cape Town and graduated with a Master of Science in Astronomy . She received her PhD in astrophysics from Cambridge University in 1993 . Her doctorate dealt with the formation and evolution of galaxies . She developed a model with which it was possible for the first time to compare images of young galaxies transmitted by large telescopes with a computer simulation of the evolution of the galaxies. Based on this model, she developed similar models for use in black holes , dark matter and quasars at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics . She has been working at this institute since 1996, where she has held the status of C3 group leader since 2003. She has been director at the MPI for Astrophysics since 2013.

Her main research focus is the investigation of the relationship between the theoretical models of structure formation in the universe and the properties of the observed luminous galaxies. From 2002 to 2009 Kauffmann worked on spectroscopic data from galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey . Together with colleagues from Johns Hopkins University, she developed a new method for estimating important parameters such as star mass, the age of the star, metallicity, the rate of star formation and star evolution. These methods are now used extensively by the research community.

Controversy over abuse of power

In February 2018, the news magazine Spiegel Online published a report on cases of abuse of power by top scientists against subordinate young researchers at the MPI for Astrophysics. In particular, the case of a professor was called, who was accused of graduate students and postdoctoral bullied to have. At the end of June 2018, an article in the online magazine Buzzfeed announced that the professor was Kauffmann. In addition to the allegations of bullying , there were also allegations of racist attacks. The allegations were supported by excerpts from emails. At the beginning of July 2018, Kauffmann commented on the allegations against her in the journal Nature and admitted that her leadership style in the past had been unacceptable by today's standards ("Regarding 'bullying" - I am of the generation that was subjected to very high pressure supervision. I realize that this has now become unacceptable. ”), But she has fundamentally changed it since then and continues to strive to improve her communication style. After similar reports from other areas ( MeToo ), this reporting was followed by a general discussion on the abuse of power in science.

Awards and honors (selection)

Publications (selection)

  • G. Kauffmann, SDM White, B. Guiderdoni: Formation and Evolution of Galaxies in Merging Dark Matter Halos. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . Volume 264, 1993, p. 201.
  • G. Kauffmann, A. Nusser, M. Steinmetz: Galaxy Formation and Large Scale Bias. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 286, 1997, p. 795.
  • G. Kauffmann, S. Charlot: Chemical Enrichment and the Origin of the Color-Magnitude Relation of Elliptical Galaxies in a Hierarchical Merger Model. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 294, 1998, p. 708.
  • G. Kauffmann, MG Haehnelt: A Unified Model for the Evolution of Galaxies and Quasars. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 311, 2000, p. 576.
  • G. Kauffmann, TM Heckman, C. Tremonti, J. Brinchmann, S. Charlot, SDM White, SE Ridgway and others: The host galaxies of active galactic nuclei. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 346, 2003, p. 1055.
  • G. Kauffmann, TM Heckman: Feast and Famine: regulation of black hole growth in low-redshift galaxies. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 397, 2009, p. 135.
  • G. Kauffmann, Cheng Li, Jian Fu, Amelie Saintonge, Barbara Catinella, Linda J. Tacconi, Carsten Kramer, Reinhard Genzel, Sean Moran, David Schiminovich: COLD GASS, an IRAM legacy survey of molecular gas in massive galaxies - III. Comparison with semianalytic models of galaxy formation. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 422, 2012, p. 997.
  • G. Kauffmann: Quantitative constraints on starburst cycles in galaxies with stellar masses in the range 108-1010M⊙. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 441, 2015, p. 2717.
  • G. Kauffmann: Physical origin of the large-scale conformity in the specific star formation rates of galaxies. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 454, 2015, p. 1840.
  • G. Kauffmann: Properties of AGNs selected by their mid-IR colors: evidence for a physically distinct mode of black hole growth. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 480, 2018, p. 3201.

Memberships (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kauffmann, Guinevere. Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, accessed on November 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Dr. Guinevere Kauffmann - Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize Winner 2002. German Research Foundation , November 9, 2009, accessed on April 27, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Prof. Dr. Guinevere Kauffmann - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize Winner 2007. German Research Foundation , December 11, 2009, accessed on April 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ see The MPA-JHU DR7 release of spectrum measurements at the MPI for Astrophysics
  5. ↑ Kristin Haug: Abuse of power at universities: "Your behavior was unpredictable and I was afraid and stressed". In: Spiegel Online . February 27, 2018, accessed July 15, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Alison Abbott: Max Planck astrophysicist at center of bullying allegations speaks up. In: nature.com . July 6, 2018, accessed July 14, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Marc Scheloske: Power and abuse of power in science. In: Spektrum.de . October 30, 2018, accessed April 24, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Anant Agarwala, Anna-Lena Scholz: Put an end to it. In: zeit.de . November 8, 2018, accessed April 24, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Kauffmann, Guinevere
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kauffmann, Guinevere Alice Mei-Ing (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astrophysicist and Leibniz Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH California