Curriculum Vitae
Personal particulars
Name: Zoltán Balog
Address(o): Max-Planck
Institute for Astronomy, Konigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Telephone +49-6221-528-359
Fax: +49-6221-528-
E-mail: balog@mpia.de
Born: 10 October 1972, Szolnok, Hungary
Citizenship: Hungarian
Languages: Hungarian, English, German
Marital Status: Married
Education
2005 PhD in Physics, University of Szeged, Hungary
Thesis: Early Stages of Stellar Evolution in Young
Galactic Open Clusters
Supervisors:
Dr. J. Vinkó and Dr. S. J. Kenyon
1997 MSc in Physics, University of Szeged, Hungary
Thesis: Baade-Wesselink Analysis of
Population II Cepheids
Supervisor:
Dr. J. Vinkó
Employment
2009 -
Research Associate, Max-Planck
Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany
2005 - 2009 Research
Associate,
Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
2003 - 2005 Assistant Research Fellow, Dept of
Optics, Univ. of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
1999 - 2002 Pre-Doctoral
Fellow Fellow, Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory, Cambridge, MA USA
Scholarships and Fellowships
1994-95 II. semester JATE
University Scholarship for Exceptional Students
1995-96 Scholarship of the Hungarian Republic for Exceptional
Students
1996-97 Scholarship of the Hungarian Republic for Exceptional
Students
1999-02 Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory, Cambridge, MA USA
Scientific Visits
1995 Visiting Student, York
University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(supervisors Dr. N.R. Evans, Dr. J.
Vinkó)
1997 Visiting Student, Instituto
de Astrofisica de Andalucia , Granada, Spain
(supervisor Dr. Emilio J. Afaro Navarro)
1998 Visiting Student:
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(supervisor: Dr. J.
Vinko)
Grants
1993-95, "Study of stellar binary systems for
solving
astrophysical problems"
Hungarian OTKA Grant #F007318 -
900,000 HUF (participaing member)
PI: Dr. József
Vinkó (Dept. of Optics & Quantum
Electronics, UofSz)
1996, "CCD Photometry of
Five
Poorly Studied Open Clusters in Cygnus"
Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae
"Students for Science" - 35,000 HUF
(personal)
1996, "CCD Photometry of
Five
Poorly Studied Open Clusters in Cygnus"
Prudencia Foundation for Students
- 36,000 HUF (personal)
1997, "CCD Strömgren
Photometry of Open Clusters in Cygnus"
Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae
"Students for Science" - 40,000 HUF
(personal)
1997, "CCD
Strömgren Photometry of Open Clusters in Cygnus"
Prudencia Foundation for Students
- 10,000 HUF (personal)
1997-99, "Application of high-resolution
optical spectroscopy in
astrophysics"
Hungarian OTKA Grant #F022249 -
900,000 HUF (participating
member)
PI: Dr. József
Vinkó (Dept. of Optics & Quantum
Electronics, UofSz)
1998, "Spectral
Classification of Members of Galactic Open Clusters"
SOROS Foundation - 1300 USD
(personal)
2001-03, "Astrophysics
of nova- and supernova explosions"
Hungarian OTKA Grant #T034615 -
7,300,000 HUF (participating
member)
PI: Dr. József
Vinkó (Dept. of Optics & Quantum
Electronics, UofSz)
2003-06,
"Variable stars in the instability strip
and on the giant branch"
Hungarian OTKA Grant #T042509 -
14,000,000 HUF (participating
member)
PI: Dr. Szatmary Károly
(Dept.
of Experimental Physics, UofSz)
2005-07,
"Optics, Spectroscopy and
Material Science"
Hungarian OTKA Grant
#TS049872 - 80,000,000 HUF (participating
member)
PI: Dr. Zs. Bor (Dept. of Optics
& Quantum Electronics, UofSz)
2005-08,
"Study
of early evolutionary stages of Solar type stars"
Hungarian OTKA Grant #T049082
(participating
member)
PI: Dr. Maria Kun (Konkoly
Observatory)
2006-09, "
Evaporating Disk"
Spitzer (64,343 USD) and
HST (25,526 USD) Grant (PI)
Research Interest and Experience
My general research goals are to understand and describe the
formation and evolution of stars through observation of different
kinds of objects. Recently my efforts are concentrated on young
galactic clusters, because they provide information about the star
formation and early stages of stellar evolution. In addition, I am
interested in all fields of astronomy including stellar and
extragalactic observation and theory, and open to all possible research
areas. Currently I am member of the MIPS team at Steward Observatory,
University of Arizona.
Besides I supervise student at the Dept. of Optics and Quantum
Electronics, University of Szeged carrying out two projects. These are
the following:
1. Near-IR photometric survey of young embedded clusters
2. Search for Pre-Main Sequence Stars in Young Galactic Open Clusters
During my projects I have carried out photometric and spectroscopic
observations with different telescopes in several observatories in the
near IR and optical wavelength regimes:
Calar Alto
Observatory, Spain (1.23m)
Fred Lawrence
Whipple Observatory, USA (1.2m,1.5m)
David Dunlap
Observatory, Canada (1.88m)
Steward Observatory
(2.3m at Kitt Peak)
MMTO (6.5m)
Computer Experience
1. Administrator-level experience with Linux.
2. Confortable with other UNIX systems
3. Fluent programming in C language
4. Experinced user of photometric and spectroscopic
reduction packages of IRAF
Teaching
2002 -2005 Teaching Assistant
(as PhD Student and assistant research fellow) at the Dept. of Optics
Univ of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
Astrophysics I-II. for 3rd year
students
Astronomical Instrumentation
I-II. for 3rd year students
Astronomical Laboratory I-II. for
2nd and 3rd year students
1998-99 Teaching Assistant at the Dept of Optics
JATE Univ.
Physics Laboratory Practice for 2nd year
students
1994-97, Junior Teaching Assistant at the
Dept.
of Optics JATE Univ.
Classical Mechanics Seminar for 1st
year
students
Physics Laboratory Practice for 2nd
year
students
Supervised students
2005 MSc thesises at the University of
Szeged
András
Gáspár: Mapping of Starbirth Region in the Near Infrared
- 27th Hungarian National Undergraduate Student Conference - 1st prize
Zoltán
Makai: Photometric Study of Open Clusters NGC189 and IC1434 - 27th
Hungarian National Undergraduate Student Conference - 3rd prize