Prof. Dr. Ralf S Klessen

Ralf Klessen is a professor of theoretical astrophysics at Heidelberg University. His research interests range from characterizing the physical processes that govern the birth of stars — both at present and in the early Universe — to gas dynamics and chemistry in the interstellar medium, which fills the space between stars in galaxies. He also studies the formation and evolution of galaxies such as our own Milky Way, the statistical properties of astrophysical turbulence, magnetic fields and dynamo processes, stellar dynamics, the design and optimization of numerical algorithms in computational astrophysics, as well as the development and application of machine learning methods.

Ralf Klessen obtained his diploma in theoretical physics at the Technical University of Munich and his PhD in astronomy at Heidelberg University. He held postdoctoral positions at Leiden Observatory and the University of California, Santa Cruz, established a research group in theoretical star formation at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, and returned to Heidelberg as a full professor in 2006. He served as Dean of Studies in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, obtained an ERC Advanced Grant in 2013 and an ERC Synergy Grant in 2019, and contributed to the Heidelberg Excellence Cluster STRUCTURES, the Collaborative Research Center The Milky Way System, and the Germany-wide Priority Program Physics of the Interstellar Medium.