Otto Hahn Medal for Surhud More
One of the recipients of this year's Otto Hahn Medal is Dr. Surhud More. He is being honoured for his innovative research on the dark matter halos that surround galaxies, carried out during his time as a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg. The Otto Hahn Medal is awarded by the Max Planck Society to outstanding junior scientists.
| Background information |
Dark matter is one of the enduring enigmas of astrophysics. It is believed to be the dominant mass component in the Universe and to play an important role in the evolution of galaxies and of large-scale cosmic structure. Since it does neither emit nor absorb light, hence the term dark matter, its nature has remained elusive. Theory dictates that dark matter collects in and around galaxies in the form of gigantic halos. For his PhD thesis, Surhud More developed a new method of estimating halo masses from the gravitational pull exerted by the halo on “satellite galaxies”, miniature galaxies that orbit their more massive kin. He applied this method to galaxies catalogued by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to determine a general statistical relation between the mass of a galaxy's halo and the total mass contained in its stars. This relation, though, only holds on average, with individual galaxies likely to deviate randomly from the mean. Surhud More was also able to quantify the amount of this random deviation (or “scatter”) – an important new result that provides researchers with a direct estimate of the role of chance and contingency in galaxy formation.
Surhud More came to Germany as one of the students of the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) on Astronomy and Cosmological Physics. For him – a student with little knowledge of German who had a keen interest in astronomy, but a background in engineering physics – IMPRS proved to be the ideal environment: The school's working language is English, and its comprehensive astrophysics course program provided him with a solid grounding in his chosen subject. Surhud More began his PhD work in mid-2006 in MPIA's “Galaxies and Cosmology” department, under the tutelage of Dr. Frank van den Bosch, graduating “summa cum laude” in July 2009. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago.
Since 1978, the Max Planck Society has honored up to 40 young scientists and researchers each year with the Otto Hahn Medal, which is named for the German chemist who was also the society's founding president. More and this year's other recipients have received their prizes at the Max-Planck-Society's general assembly in Hannover, Germany, on June 16, 2010.
Background information
The International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Cosmic Physics at the University of Heidelberg (IMPRS-HD) was established 2004 as joint initiative of the Max Planck Society and the University of Heidelberg. IMPRS-HD started its academic activities 2005, offering a structured PhD study program that provides its graduates with comprehensive training in astrophysics and a broad set of skills and experiences useful for astrophysics research and teaching as well for other career paths. The teaching language is English, so that non-German speakers can fully participate in the IMPRS-HD course of study. IMPRS-HD admission is competitive, and it is the school's particular goal to attract outstanding international students. Presently, 70% of the IMPRS-HD's 80 PhD students are from a country other than Germany. About one third of the students are female. So far, about 30 PhD students have graduated from IMPRS-HD.