Board of Directors

MPIA, as any other Max Planck Institute, is managed by its directors. Each director is a scientific member of the Max Planck Society e.V. and the head of one of the institute's scientific departments. The directors alternately act as managing directors.

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Laura Kreidberg

Laura Kreidberg is interested in exoplanets large and small. Her research focuses on atmosphere characterization, with the goal of turning these distant planets into real places -- revealing what they're like and how they came to be. more

Thomas K. Henning

Thomas Henning has always been interested in fundamental physical and chemical processes. As a school student he established his own chemical laboratory and later became interested in non-linear dynamics. more

Hans-Walter Rix

Hans-Walter Rix has been working on understanding why galaxies—arising ultimately from random fluctuations in the early Universe—exhibit such intricate structure and beautiful regularity in their dynamics and stellar populations. more

Planet and Star Formation Department

Thomas K. Henning

Managing Director

+49 6221 528-200

henning@...

Galaxies and Cosmology Department

Hans-Walter Rix

Director

+49 6221 528-210

rix@...

Atmospheric Physics of Exoplanets Department

Laura Kreidberg

Director

+49 6221 528-215

kreidberg@...

Where institute management task are concerned, the directors are supported by the Scientific Coordinator and the Head of Administration; in their external communications, by the head of public outreach.

Former Directors

Prof. Dr. Immo Appenzeller

Prof. Dr. Steven V.W. Beckwith 

Prof. Dr. Hans Elsässer (†)

Prof. Dr. Guido Münch

Former External Scientific Members

Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Böhm (†)

Prof. Dr. Walter Fricke (†)

Prof. Dr. George H. Herbig (†)

External Scientific Members

By appointing eminent German and international scientists as external scientific members, Max Planck Institutes bolster international scientific cooperation.

Prof. Dr. Conny Aerts (Universität Leuven/Radbound Universität Nijmegen)

Prof. Dr. Immo Appenzeller (Emeritus, University of Heidelberg)

Prof. Dr. Steven V.W. Beckwith (University of California, Berkeley)

Prof. Dr. Willy Benz (Universität Bern)

Prof. Dr. Rafael Rebolo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias)

Prof. Dr. Volker Springel (Heidelberger Institut für Theoretische Studien)

Max-Planck-Fellow

Prof. Dr. Oliver Trapp (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)