Research Funding New ERC-Funded Research Group at Institute for Astronomical Computing
Press Release No. 86/2025
28 July 2025
Astrophysicist Dr Max Grönke uses Starting Grant for research on the origin and emergence of galaxies
Simulations on the origin and emergence of galaxies are the topic of a new research group based at the Institute for Astronomical Computing of Heidelberg University and led by Dr Max Grönke. The astrophysicist’s research focuses particularly on the dynamics of gases in the galactic ecosystem. The European Research Council (ERC) is funding it through an ERC Starting Grant. The scientist will receive finance amounting to approximately 1.5 million euros for the project over a period of five years.
Dr Grönke is investigating the complex interactions of multiphase gas in different astrophysical contexts, from galactic winds to the circumgalactic medium – a gas cloud surrounding galaxies. In the context of the ERC-funded project “Resolving the Multiscale, Multiphase Universe” (ReMMU), his research group is working on novel computing methods with which multiphase gas can be modelled in cosmological simulations. These simulations might help to interpret existing observations better and to make more reliable predictions. The astrophysicist’s research aims to gain a fundamental understanding of the physics regulating the galactic ecosystem, in order to develop fresh insights into the origin and emergence of galaxies.
Max Grönke graduated from Freie Universität Berlin and earned his doctorate at the University of Oslo (Norway). Following postdoc positions in the United States – at the University of California in Santa Barbara and at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, as a NASA Hubble Fellow – he headed the research group “Multiphase Gas” at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching from November 2021. Last year the European Research Council approved valuable funding for his ReMMU project, an ERC Starting Grant. Since July 2025 Dr Grönke has been using this grant for research at the Institute for Astronomical Computing, which belongs to the Centre for Astronomy of Heidelberg University.
With the ERC Starting Grant the European Research Council supports outstanding young scientists from all disciplines who have already produced excellent work and wish to conduct pioneering research as project leaders.