New Faculty Member: Dominik Riechers

November 26th, 2012

I am Dominik Riechers, and I just started as a new Assistant Professor in the Astronomy Department here at Cornell. Prior to my arrival, I was working as a Hubble Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow at Caltech - where I arrived in the winter of 2007, after receiving my PhD from the University of Heidelberg and Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy in Germany. I am an observationally driven astronomer, but I occasionally get distracted by attempts to model what I am (and others are) observing. I have a key interest in improving our understanding of the initial conditions for star formation in galaxies in the early universe, and their evolution with cosmic time. My studies place particular emphasis on the physical and chemical properties of the (molecular) gas out of which stars and circumstellar environments (the birth sites of planets) form. Investigations of the molecular gas content of galaxies through cosmic times offer crucial insight into the physical conditions for active star formation and the buildup of stellar mass (as the result of star formation) at different epochs, providing a means to understand the origins of the universe as we see it at present day. As an observational astronomer, I am particularly excited about receiving some of the first data sets from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) that is currently nearing completion in Chile - located at the base of the mountain where Cornell and partners will build the Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope (CCAT) in the next few years. Given my scientific background, this makes it particularly exciting times to join the faculty at Cornell. I am looking forward to many successful years of research here in Ithaca!