The Team
Group picture during the pandemic.
Prof. Anna Franckowiak (PI)
During my PhD within
the IceCube Collaboration I
worked on probing the connection of jets, Supernovae and Gamma-Ray
Bursts using TeV neutrinos. As a postdoc at the
SLAC National Linear Accelerator
Laboratory I studied the morphology and the spectrum of the Fermi bubbles
and searched for gamma-ray emission from Type IIn supernovae using Fermi-LAT
data as a member of the Fermi-LAT Collaboration.
From 2017-2022 I led a Helmholtz Young Investigator
Group at DESY Zeuthen and since October 2020 I'm a full professor for multi-wavelength
astronomy at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). I served as the
IceCube analysis coordinator (2019-2021) and the multi-messenger co-coordinator of the Zwicky
Transient Facility (2019-2022). I coordinated the Fermi-LAT diffuse working group
in 2015-2016.
I'm a member of the of the IceCube, Fermi-LAT, CTA, ASAS-SN, ZTF and Large Array
Survey Telescope (LAST) collaborations.
Vera Nowak (Team Assistance)
Vera is the most important member of the group. She helps us to survive the bureaucracy djungle.
Dr. Elisa Pueschel (Staff Scientist)
My research focuses on very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, particularly gamma-ray
cosmology, blazar science, and the search for astrophysical dark matter. On the technical
side, I am interested in developing analysis methods for gamma ray astronomy. I come from
a particle physics background: my PhD was on the CDF experiment at the Tevatron,
and my first postdoc on the ATLAS experiment at CERN. In 2013, I moved to gamma-ray
astronomy via an Irish Research Council Fellowship and then a Marie Curie Fellowship at
University Dublin. From 2017-2022 I led a Helmholtz Young Investigator group at DESY
Zeuthen, and stayed on as a staff scientist. Since August 2023 I am a staff scientist
in the Multimessenger Group at RUB.
I am a member of the VERITAS collaboration and the CTA consortium. Currently I am
the co-chair of the VERITAS Time Allocation Committee, and deputy chair of the CTA
Extragalactic Science working group.
Dr. Emma Kun (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow), based at RUB
Emma completed her PhD in 2017 at the University of Szeged, Hungary, on the topic of
revealing supermassive black hole binaries via the signatures in the jets of radio-loud
active galactic nuclei. She analyzed decade-long very long baseline interferometric data
of AGN jets and modeled the evolution of the jet structure by hypothesizing an orbiting
supermassive black hole at the base of the jet. After finishing a three years grant
hosted by the Konkoly Observatory (Budapest, Hungary) and remotely already collaborating
with Julia Becker Tjus and Anna Franckowiak, she joined RUB in October 2022 to work on
the multimessenger astronomy of blazars, mainly from the angle of neutrino
(IceCube Neutrino Observatory), gamma-ray (Fermi-LAT) and radio astronomy (various
interferometric and single dish measurements).
Emma started her Humboldt Fellowship with Anna on 1 April, 2023. They carry out s
tacking analysis of IceCube neutrino data to probe a sample of roughly 300 gamma-ray blazars.
Emma is a member of the IceCube Collaboration.
Dr. Vandad Fallah Ramazani (Postdoc), based at RUB
After having 7 years of professional experience in industries as a mechanical engineer,
I started my desired field of interest by undertaking a master's and then Ph.D.
degree program in physics and astronomy at Tuorla Observatory, Turku, Finland.
During my Ph.D. within the MAGIC Collaboration, I worked on BL Lac objects. BL Lac
objects are the most numerous extragalactic sources to be detected at very high
energy (VHE, >100 GeV) gamma rays and are a sub-class of blazar-type active galactic
nuclei, with their relativistic jet points very close to our line of sight.
Starting in February 2020 I am acting as the multi-wavelength/multi-messenger
deputy coordinator of MAGIC collaboration and since January 2021, I joined the
team of astrophysicists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) as a postdoctoral
fellow. At RUB, we are building and testing a cost-efficient optical telescope
with polarization capability using a state-of-art approach. Once the design is
approved it will be used as part of the Large Array Survey Telescope (LAST) or
the optical support telescope of the future generation of imaging air Cherenkov
telescopes.
I'm a member of the MAGIC, Fermi-LAT, and Large Array Survey Telescope (LAST)
collaborations.
Simeon Reusch (PhD Student)
I am a PhD student at DESY since October 2019. In my master thesis at
Humboldt-University Berlin I discovered a time-dependent bias in the
calibration pipeline of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). As part of the
Helmholtz-Weizmann International School on Multimessenger Astronomy, I am
mainly concerned with optical follow-up to high-energy neutrinos detected
by IceCube.
We have already discovered two exciting potential counterparts
to these - a TDE (see Robert) and a quite mysterious flare in a
Narrow-Line Seyfert Galaxy – stay tuned! I am also focusing on the
integration of neutrino and optical candidate correlation schemes
into the AMPEL framework, have developed a forced photometry framework
for quick retrieval via Slack and work on the ZTF Supernova Ia Sample with
the Cosmology Group at Humboldt.
Cristina Lagunas Gualda (PhD Student)
I started my PhD at DESY in November 2019. I did both my Bachelor's and my
Master's degree at the University of Valencia.
I completed my master thesis in "Instituto de Física
Corpuscular", where I worked with ANTARES on dark matter
searches. Now I will focus on point source detection during my PhD with IceCube.
Jannis Necker (PhD Student)
Jannis did his Bachelor thesis in the cosmology group at Humboldt University. Then he spend a year studying in Madrid. He joined that group
as a master student and worked on an algorithm to estimate the explosion time of
core-collapse supernovae in order to define a search window for high-energy neutrinos. In addition he compares
different neutrino stacking codes.
In November 2020 Jannis started his PhD in the multi-messenger group as a member
of the Helmholtz-Weizmann research school. He expands his work on core-collapse supernovae
light curves.
Sven Weimann (PhD student, based at RUB)
In October 2020 I started my PhD thesis in the Multi-Messenger Group at the
Ruhr-University. My work is focused on developing the new LAST telescope
together with other astronomers at DESY in Zeuthen and the Weizmann Institute
in Israel and finding optical counterparts of the IceCube neutrino events using
real-time observations of the Zwicky Transient Facility.
Before joining Anna Franckowiak's group, I worked at the Astronomical
Institute of the Ruhr University on photometry of large-scale structures in
galaxies, including the study of the Low Surface Brightness Universe.
In my master thesis I worked on the detection of diffuse dust in the disk-halo
interface of nearby edge-on galaxies.
Anastasiia Omeliukh (PhD student, based at RUB with DAAD scholarship)
Anastasiia got her master's degree at University of Kiev. She worked on simulations
for IceCube-Gen2 and spend an extended period at DESY Zeuthen working with Markus Ackermann.
In October 2021 she started her PhD at RUB where she works on multi-messenger
modeling of blazars.
Paul-Simon Blomenkamp (PhD student, based at RUB)
I did my master's degree at TU Dortmund as part of the E5b physics working group. There I worked on
the automatic detection of radio astronomical sources using methods of machine learning.
In March 2022, I started my PhD at Anna Franckowiak's working group in Bochum. Here I study the
diffuse gamma-ray emissions in the Milky Way galaxy, by comparing state-of-the-art models
to Fermi-LAT data.
Giacomo Sommani (PhD student, based at RUB)
Giacomo spend 8 months at RUB as an ERASMUS intern to work on his master thesis. Now he's a PhD student at RUB.
He studies the angular uncertainty of IceCube alert
event with a focus on the influence of systematic uncertainties introduced by a limited
understanding of the ice properties.
Patrik Milan Veres (PhD student, based at RUB)
Patrik started his PhD at RUB in October 2022. He did his master thesis in Budapest where he studied EVN radio imaging and HST optical data
of a dual AGN candidate. He now works on gamma-ray and radio
emission of tidal disruption events.
Maurice Weigelt (Master student, based at RUB)
I got my Bachelor’s degree at the Astronomical Institute of RUB In 2021.
I analysed stellar tidal streams of
nearby spiral galaxies with deep photometry of amateur telescope images.
Since June 2023, I work on my master thesis in the Multi-Messenger Group at RUB
and study the feasibility of future Kilonova detection with the upcoming UV
telescope ULTRASAT.
Frederike Apel (Master student, based at RUB)
Frederike did her Bachelor thesis in the group (graduation 2021), where she the modeled
the low-frequency emission from
the blazar PKS 1502+106. In her master thesis she investigates the multi-dimensional parameter
space of lepto-hadronic models for the blazar PKS 0735+178.
Julia Baßier (Bachelor student, based at RUB)
I am a Bachelor's student at RUB, and my favorite subjects are astrophysics and anything
math-related. Currently, I am working on my Bachelor's thesis in cooperation with the
Institute of Stochastics since September. The thesis focuses on the stability of cross-correlation
of multi-wavelength blazar light curves depending on the data quality.
Past Team Members
Dr. Massimiliano Lincetto (Postdoc), based at RUB 2020-2023, now postdoc at University of Wuerzburg
After my master at the University of Padua, I pursued my PhD at the CPPM of Marseille
as part of the KM3NeT Collaboration. My thesis has been centred on the capability
of detecting low-energy neutrinos from a future nearby core-collapse supernova
with the KM3NeT detectors. In this time I had the chance to discover the world
of neutrino telescopes and get in touch with the community of multi-messenger
astronomy. I have been involved in the birth of the SNEWS2.0 Collaboration, aimed to
build the next generation supernova early warning system based on the coincident
detections of neutrinos around the globe.
As of January 2021, I entered the Multi-Messenger Group as a postdoc
at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, aiming to explore the high-energy neutrino
frontier. Here, I have joined the efforts to discover astrophysical sources
with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, exploiting the potential of
multi-messenger observations.
Dr. Simone Garrappa (former PhD Student at DESY and postdoc based at RUB, now postdoc at Weizmann Instutite in Israel)
Simone started his PhD at DESY in January 2018. He did his master thesis
at University of Bari working on photon identification
in the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) with machine learning algorithms.
During his PhD at DESY he worked with Fermi data to look for
gamma-ray counterparts of high-energy neutrinos detected by IceCube. Now he is
leading the Fermi-LAT flare advocate activities and got involved in optical polarization
measurements with LAST.
Dr. Xavier Rodrigues (Postdoc, based at RUB 2021-2023), now postdoc at ESO
I'm a postdoc currently interested in the numerical modeling of high-energy phenomena that take place in the most
powerful objects in the Universe, such as active black holes and gamma-ray bursts. I did my PhD at DESY, where I studied
Active Galactic Nuclei, or AGNs, as potential sources of neutrinos and cosmic rays.
I joined the Multi-Messenger group in
October 2019, and I am currently working on identifying the sources of the astrophysical neutrinos observed by IceCube, whose
origin is not yet understood. For that I develop astrophysical simulations involving high-performance numerical algorithms and
machine learning, and I work closely with my experimental IceCube colleagues in understanding the analysis of the observational data.
Anatolii Zenin (PhD student, based at RUB)
I got my master's degree at Nagoya University. I was working on hardware for
the Medium-Sized Telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), and I
studied silicon photomultipliers as a potential replacement for conventional
photomultiplier tubes, aiming to improve the instrument's sensitivity to
potential signal from dark matter self-annihilation.
Now I work on the Large Array Survey Telescope (LAST) with the focus in
hardware for polarization measurements and instrument calibration. I am
also planning to study the capabilities of LAST in joint observations
with other types of instruments, such as gamma-ray telescopes,
neutrino observatories, and gravitational-wave observatories.
Tianyu Zhao (Bachelor student, based at RUB, graduation in 2023)
Tianyu is a Bachelor student at RUB. He employs IceCube neutrino alert data and cosmological information to
estimate the number of transients potentially associated with IceCube neutrinos.
Simon Pick (Bachelor student, based at RUB, graduation in 2023)
Simon is a Bachelor student at RUB and started his bachelor's thesis in October 2022.
He investigates the excess of neutrinos from blazars in the Roma-BZCAT by matching these sources to point-like neutrino hotspots
detected by IceCube in the Southern sky.
Yannik Pospiech (Bachelor student, based at RUB, graduation in 2023)
Yannik is a Bachelor student at RUB. He studies the connection between supernovae and magnetars,
to learn about their emission processes with the goal to probe them as neutrino
emitters.
Andreas Willeke (Bachelor student, based at RUB, graduation in 2022)
I studied mechanical engineering at RUB and received my degree
Dipl.-Ing. in 1984. After working in the energy business for more than
three decades, I decided to learn more about modern physics and
returned to RUB as a student. During my studies I focused on astronomy
and particle physics.
I work with Massimiliano on a search for high-energy neutrinos with IceCube from the direction of the peculiar
supernova iPTF14hls.
Robert Stein (PhD Student from 2017 to 2021 - now postdoc at Caltech)
Since July 2017 I've been a PhD student at DESY. I'm originally from London,
and did my undergraduate studies at Imperial College. I completed my masters
project, as part of an Erasmus Exchange, in the Astroparticle Physics group
of the University of Hamburg. The thesis topic was Reconstruction of Heavy
Cosmic rays using Cherenkov Light, giving me a background in Cherenkov
Telescopes and Cosmic Rays. But I've now moved into the exciting field of
high-energy neutrino physics and multi-messenger astronomy.
My research specialism is Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs), which can occur
when a star passes close to a Super Massive Black Hole. If the Star passes
between the tidal radius and the event horizon of the Black Hole, the star
is torn into two halves. One half is accreted by the black hole, while the
other half is ejected. The entire process can be highly luminous, allowing
us to detect it on Earth. Though we have not observed many TDEs (so far less
than 100 have been discovered), the ones we have found are extremely energetic.
Though the physics mechanisms are not well understood, they are likely to be
strong particle accelerators. This makes them an interesting potential
candidate for the source of high energy neutrinos that we detect on Earth.
My analysis is based on a multi-messenger approach, trying to correlate
neutrinos from IceCube to TDE sources detected with telescopes (such as
ASAS-SN or ZTF).
Dr. Vaidehi Paliya (Postdoc from 2018-2020, now assistent professor at IUCAA in India)
Vaidehi started as a postdoc in the group in November 2018. He did his PhD at the Indian Institute for Astrophysics and continued
his career as a postdoc at Clemson University. He is an expert on blazar jets and worked with X-ray and gamma-ray data.
He was the coordinator of the Fermi-LAT AGN working group.
Dr. Shan Gao (Postdoc from 2020-2021), now in data science
Shan did his PhD at Penn State University, where he modelled GRBs under supervison
of Peter Meszaros. He participated in the foundations of the Astrophysical
Multi-messenger Observatory Network (AMON). In 2014 he moved to a postdoc position
in the theory group at DESY, where he developed the state-of-the-art lepto-hadronic
modeling code AM3. The code was successfully applied to model the spectral energy
distribution of the blazar TXS 0506+056.
Shan works on the code optimization, developing interface to couple the code
with other simulation software and using big simulation data and machine learning
technology to search for promising neutrino source candidates.
Dr. Ludwig Rauch (Postdoc from 2017-2019), now in data science
I am a postdoc at DESY since August 2017 working on multi-messenger astronomy
combining ZTF and IceCube data. During my PhD at the Max-Planck-Institut
für Kernphysik in Heidelberg I was a member of the XENON collaboration which tries
to directly detect dark matter with liquid xenon dual-phase time projection
chambers. My work included the analysis of the combined science data of XENON100 to constrain the WIMP model
as well as the construction and performance tests of the photomultiplier arrays of next generation experiment
XENON1T.
At DESY I am working on a novel transient pipeline for ZTF allowing for
data processing and event selection, designed to be automated and
adaptive to manage the large number of expected transient detections.
The pipeline will enable multiple analyses starting from target of
opportunity observations for multi-messenger astronomy to a magnitude
limited and complete transient catalogue.
Richard Naab (Master Student, now PhD student at DESY in the neutrino astronomy group, working with Dr. Markus Ackermann)
My name is Richard, and I am a physics student at Humboldt University. I did my Bachelor's degree in Heidelberg and spent one year in
Grenoble with the Erasmus program.
At the LPSC in Grenoble, I got in touch with high-energy physics at the LHC and did my Bachelor's project on the
prospects of searching for Dark Matter with the ATLAS detector.
Ulas Oeren (Master Student, now software developer in Istanbul)
Ulas works with Fermi-LAT data. Starting from photons at energies above 100 GeV he looks for not catalogued sources and studies their multi-wavelength behavior.
The data is then fit with a leptonic model.