Caroline Gieser Receives the Biermann Prize from the German Astronomical Society

July 08, 2026

Caroline Gieser, postdoctoral researcher in the Department Planet Formation and Exoplanets at MPIA, will be awarded the Ludwig Biermann Prize at the annual meeting of the German Astronomical Society (AG) in September.

Portrait Caroline Gieser — Caroline Gieser

© C. Gieser

Caroline Gieser

© C. Gieser

The Astronomical Society awards the Ludwig Biermann Prize annually to an outstanding astronomer in the first few years following the completion of their Ph.D. The award provides 3,000 Euros to support a research visit at an institute of the recipient’s choice. The award is named after the renowned German astrophysicist Ludwig Biermann (1907–1986) and was first presented by the German Astronomical Society in 1989.

In its press release, the German Astronomical Society honors Caroline Gieser “in recognition of her outstanding contributions to our understanding of the physical and chemical processes that govern star formation.”

The study of star-forming regions is of fundamental importance to astrophysics. In complex clouds of gas and dust, new stars and entire planetary systems form not only in our home galaxy, the Milky Way, but nearly everywhere in the cosmos across billions of other galaxies. Understanding the mechanisms of star formation and how they evolve over cosmological timescales is therefore of fundamental importance for a wide variety of fields in astrophysical research. This ranges from the formation of planetary systems to the evolution of entire galaxies.

Star Forming Region CygnusX — The Cygnus X star-forming region, located about 4,500 light-years away. The image was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light in the wavelength range between 3.6 and 24 micrometers, and the colors were assigned to different wavelengths within this range.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

The Cygnus X star-forming region, located about 4,500 light-years away. The image was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light in the wavelength range between 3.6 and 24 micrometers, and the colors were assigned to different wavelengths within this range.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

Since we are part of our Milky Way System, we are able to conduct very detailed observations here due to the relative low distance of star-forming regions. One example is the Cygnus-X star-forming region shown here in an infrared image from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Thanks to infrared wavelengths, it is possible to study structures even within such clouds, since the longer-wavelength light is less absorbed by dust. This makes it possible to look, so to speak, into the very heart of active star formation.

Caroline Gieser has already made an important contribution to precisely such studies early in her career. The announcement of the Astronomical Society therefore continues:

“Combining cutting-edge observations with advanced astrochemical modeling, her pioneering studies of high-mass star-forming regions provided the first observational constraints on the density and temperature structures of massive protostellar cores and demonstrated how chemical evolution can be used to trace the earliest stages of star formation. Her work is distinguished by a uniquely holistic approach that combines observations with sophisticated physical and chemical modeling, yielding fundamental insights into the evolution of star-forming environments across a wide range of masses and evolutionary stages.”

Caroline Gieser worked on her PhD at the MPIA under the supervision of Henrik Beuther and completed her thesis in 2022 at the University of Heidelberg. After a postdoc position at the MPI for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, she is now back at MPIA and works in the Department of Planetary Formation and Exoplanets (PFE), headed by Director Myriam Benisty.

Press Release of the German Astronomical Society

KJ/CG/HB