Junge AG Summerschool, Potsdam, 2025
From 2nd to 4th of June 2025, at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP), the fifth School of the young German Astronomical Society (junge Astronomische Gesellschaft – junge AG) took place. To welcome the participants, an informal dinner took place on Sunday before the Summer School officially started. This time, the Summer School lasted for three full days, from Monday to Wednesday. At this Summer School, we had a pleasure of welcoming young members of the Royal Astronomical Society, in the spirit of the first joint jAG/RAS Summer School.
jAG Summer School in session
The first day of Summer School started with a welcome talk and an introduction to AIP, given by Matthias Steinmetz, director of the research branch Extragalactic astrophysics of AIP. After this, Katja Poppenhaeger , director of the research branch Stellar, solar, and exoplanetary physics of AIP, gave a talk about interactions of exoplanets and stars. The rest of the day was reserved for a workshop related to Bayesian statistics, lead by Francesca Capel from Max Planck Institute for Physics.
Statistics workshop
After the workshop, a tour of AIP took place, lead by Janine Fohlmeister and Hakan Önel, where participants had the opportunity to hear about the rich history of the institute, as well as about the current and future plans. After a hard day of work, the conference dinner took place, where the participants had an opportunity to relax and to get to know each other in a more informal environment.
Tour of AIP
The second day of Summer School, Tuesday, was reserved for job talks and science talks. During the job talks session, participants had the chance to hear about the career opportunities outside academia, but still related to astronomy. Here, OHB (Matthias Reichert and Danilo Költzsch), DLR (Dominik Köhler), and Stiftung Planetarium Berlin (Tim Horn) presented themselves and gave the participants an idea about jobs in astronomy related industries, as well as work in public outreach. After the talks, a panel discussion took place, where participants and our speakers engaged in a lively debate about differences between career inside and outside academia, that lasted for about an hour. After the job talks session, science talks took place. Science talks covered quite a broad range of topics, including a talk about a new class of stripped star binaries with compact companions given by Stephan Geier, followed by a talk about the importance of stellar feedback for the evolution of galaxies, given by the president of the AG, Stefanie Walch-Gassner. Then, Aashia Rahman talked about photonics in astronomy, and Iris Traulsen took us to a quest to search for hidden X-ray treasures in XMM-Newton data. The last part of the day was dedicated to a visit to Einstein Science Park at the Telegrafenberg, where Georg Lamer took the participants for a tour of the Great refractor, and Alexander Warmuth showed them the solar telescope at the Einstein tower. After a day with a very intense schedule, the participants had a chance to unwind and visit the beautiful city center of Potsdam.
Job Talks Panel Discussion Tour of the Great Refractor Tour of the Einstein Tower
Wednesday, the last day of the Summer School, started with a talk given by the founder of the junge AG Markus Hundertmark. He talked about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and preparing for operations from the Perspective of Gravitational Microlensing. The rest of the day was dedicated to the colloquium of the junge AG, where the participants had a chance to present themselves, and to give a talk about their research. The list of talks is given below:
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IMF Variations Across the DESI Galaxy Populations – Amara Mighty
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Gravitational Waves: From Detection to Data Analysis with Machine Learning – Ann-Kristin Malz
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Spaceborne VLBI: BHEX and Future Mission Concepts – Ben Hudson
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Mass Modeling the Andromeda Dwarf Galaxies – Connor S. Pickett
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Planetary Engulfment and its Impact on Stellar Magnetic Activity in Close-Orbit Systems – Julius Göhring
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JWST IFU observations of massive YSO S7A in 30 Doradus – Katharina Jurk
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Spatial Mapping of Atmospheric Winds and Sodium Absorption in Exoplanets Using High-Resolution Spectroscopy – Matthew Godfrey
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Gaia’s Farewell and the Rise of Astrometric Microlensing – Mauritz Wicker
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Fragmentation and accretion in massive star-forming cores – Nuray Ortaköse
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Advancing Lunar Ice Characterization with a Dual-Instrument CubeSat Constellation: Combining Neutron and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy – Winfred Ooh-Azlin
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Mass Transfer Signatures in B-type Binaries: Insights from BBC and OGLE – Henry Willems
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X-ray and Analytical Modeling of Supernova Remnants – Vaibhav Shukla
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Kinematic Characterisation of Stars and Globular Clusters in the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1374 in Fornax Cluster – Rakesh Ramesh Chitra (in a form of a poster)
Talk by Markus Hundertmark
We want to use this opportunity to thank all the people involved in making this Summer School a success. Big thanks to all of our participants (37 of them!) for actively engaging in the program. It was a pleasure hosting you! An enormous thanks to the organisers and local support: AG office (Sabina Bahic, Steven Haemmerich), Anja Cysewski, Gina Boer, Ronny Nickel, Janine Fohlmeister, Kira Knauff, Rontis Marquardt, Laurent Stuetz, Iris Traulsen. Special thanks to Markus Hundertmark for starting the story of junge AG and working incredibly hard to make it what it is today. A big thank you goes to RAS too, for supporting their young members’ travel to Potsdam, and therefore supporting the joint jAG/RAS activities. We are looking forward to many more joint activities! Big thanks goes to the Board of the AG for giving us the green flag and supporting our events. We are already looking forward to the next summer school. Until the next time!
Group photo
See you next time!
Text: Sabina Bahić
Photo credit: Steven Hämmerich, Markus Hundertmark, and Sabina Bahic
