Andreas Korn

Andreas Korn is a stellar spectroscopist at Uppsala Astronomical Observatory, Sweden. Within CU8 (Astrophysical Parameters) he is in charge of coordinating the Europe-wide computation of stellar synthetic observables (fluxes and spectra). These are used for training the codes and will form the basis for deriving the physical parameters of the stars observed by Gaia.

Andreas was awarded his PhD on 'Cool-star Gravities' from the University of Munich in 2002. After a postdoc at the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, he went to Uppsala to do research with Bengt Gustafsson. A certain emphasis has been on cool metal-poor stars and the modelling of their spectra. His recent finding of diffusive processes in unevolved metal-poor globular-cluster stars (see Nature paper, or pdf file has attracted considerable attention as it seems to solve a discrepancy between stellar and Big-Bang lithium abundances uncovered by WMAP.

Together with researchers at Nice (OCA) and elsewhere, Andreas is also trying to relax a number of far-reaching assumptions (mixing-length convection, LTE) made in classical stellar-atmosphere models. By raising the level of modelling realism, it is hoped that certain aspects of the astrophysical interpretation of Gaia (e.g. age determinations) will not be subject to severe systematic biases.

[Published: 27/04/2007]