Michael Dumke

ESO Staff Scientist at the APEX Project

Astronomical research

My general field of work can be described as "extragalactic astronomy". However, usually I investigate rather nearby galaxies, and since I mainly use radio telescopes for my studies, it's basically the interstellar matter in these objects:

• Magnetic fields in disks and halos of galaxies
• Origin and morphology of radio halos
• Morphology and dynamics of molecular gas in galactic disks
• Cold dust in galaxies
• Physical conditions in the ISM of external galaxies

Main responsibilities at APEX

• Preparation and observation of scientific projects at APEX in service mode and data quality control
• Participation in the commissioning of facility receivers, backends, software and other components
• Continued development and maintenance of the web-based "phase 2" project information submission facility
• Monitoring the calibration stability and uncertainties of the facility heterodyne receivers (SHeFI) within the framework of the APEX calibration plan
• Monitoring and documentation of the array parameters of the facility bolometers (LABOCA & SABOCA) and determine the beam shape
• Maintenance of the heterodyne pointing source list and documentation of the pointing source spectra

Other stuff

Throughout the years I've been working on some other stuff which is either outdated by now or not directly related to APEX or my current science activities. I keep some information about these topics on a separate page.