Prof. Dr. Jochen Liske

Head of group

Address

Universität Hamburg

Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences

Department of Physics

Hamburg Observatory

Gojenbergsweg 112

21029 Hamburg

Office

Main building

Room: 104

Contact

Tel: +49 40 42838 8582

Fax: +49 40 42838 8598

Email: jochen.liske"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Zoom: https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/my/jliske

Résumé

I am Professor of Observational Astronomy at the Hamburger Sternwarte, which is an institute in the Department of Physics of Universität Hamburg (UHH). I am also a member of the Quantum Universe Cluster of Excellence, a leading member of several large scientific collaborations, a member of the European Southern Observatory's Scientific Technical Committee, and a deputy member of the university's Academic Senate.

My scientific interests are in extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. I try to unravel the mechanisms that are responsible for the evolution of galaxies by studying large samples of galaxies obtained from imaging and spectroscopic surveys at various wavelengths. I also study the tenuous intergalactic medium, worry about why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, and contribute to the development of new astronomical instruments.

I teach both introductory and advanced courses on astrophysics at the Department of Physics and at various summer schools.

I am also a keen and active science communicator. In the past, I have hosted the Hubblecast and the ESOcast, two popular video podcasts featuring the latest science, news and images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory. Other productions I have been fortunate enough to be involved with include the movie Eyes on the Skies, a documentary celebrating the 400th anniversary of the telescope in the International Year of Astronomy 2009, The Eye 3D, an award-winning 3D documentary about ESO's Paranal Observatory that was released in October 2009, and the Austrian TV series Hubble – Mission Universum. I frequently give media interviews as well as public talks at science events (e.g. Wissen vom Fass), conferences, universities, schools, astronomy clubs, public observatories, adult education centres, etc. If you are looking for an interview partner or public speaker, feel free to contact me.

Before joining UHH, I was a staff astronomer at the European Southern Observatory, working on the science of the Extremely Large Telescope, the world's largest optical and infrared telescope (currently under construction). Previously, I was a Fellow at ESO and a postdoc at the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews. I obtained my PhD from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, under the supervision of Profs. John Webb and Bob Carswell (IoA Cambridge), and studied Physics at the University of Bonn.

Hubblecast

The Hubblecast is an award-winning video podcast featuring the latest science, news and images from the Hubble Space Telescope. I was the presenter and science adviser for about 70 episodes, which accumulated more than 40 million downloads.

Refereed publications

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In the media and outreach

Das Extremly Large Telescope und seine Rolle bei der Erforschung Schwarzer Löcher,
DLR Köln und Karl-Rahner-Akademie, 07-08 Jun 2022

Haben Schwarze Löcher wirklich keine Haare?,
Wir wollen's wissen, 17-21 Jan 2022

Ikonen des Universums,
20 Jahre LEIFIphysik, Joachim Herz Stiftung, 18 Jun 2021

Die Erforschung des Mars,
Kiwanis Klub Hamburg, 25 Feb 2021

Haben Schwarze Löcher wirklich keine Haare?,
"Astro-Talk" aus dem SFZ Hamburg, 08 Dec 2020

Jochen Liske wollte eigentlich zu den Sternen fliegen,
Bergedorfer Zeitung, 26 May 2020

Spektakuläre Teleskope,
Gut zu wissen, Bayerischer Rundfunk, 16 May 2020

Der Himmel von Morgen: die neuen Superteleskope,
Planetarium Hamburg, 21 Feb 2020

Faszination Planeten,
Einführung zum Universitätskonzert, Laeiszhalle, 02 Feb 2020

„Wie kann man davon nicht begeistert sein?“,
Interview, 29 Jan 2020

Haben Schwarze Löcher wirklich keine Haare?,
Wir wollen's wissen, 21-23 Jan 2020

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Conference proceedings

ELT-HIRES, the high resolution spectrograph for the ELT: results from the Phase A study,
A. Marconi et al. (incl J. Liske), 2018, in "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII", Proceedings of the SPIE, 10702, 107021Y

EELT-HIRES the high-resolution spectrograph for the E-ELT,
A. Marconi et al. (incl J. Liske), 2016, in "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI", Proceedings of the SPIE, 9908, 990823

The Wide Area VISTA Extra-Galactic Survey (WAVES),
S.P. Driver, L.J. Davies, M. Meyer, C. Power, A.S.G. Robotham, I.K. Baldry, J. Liske, P. Norberg, 2016, in "The Universe of Digital Sky Surveys" (Capodimonte, 25-28 November 2014), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, 42, 205, N.R. Napolitano, G. Longo, M. Marconi, M. Paolillo, E. Iodice, eds.

Cosmological Dynamics: a Direct Measurement of the Expansion History of the Universe with the E-ELT,
J. Liske, 2011, in "Particle Physics and Cosmology – First results from the LHC", Proceedings of the XXIInd Rencontres de Blois (Blois, 15-20 July 2010), 123, L. Celnikier, J. Dumarchez, B. Klima, J. Tran Thanh Van, eds.

ESO Future Facilities to Probe Fundamental Physical Constants,
P. Molaro, J. Liske, 2010, in "From Varying Couplings to Fundamental Physics", Proceedings of Symposium 1 of JENAM 2010 (Lisbon, 06-10 September 2010), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, 147, C. Martins, P. Molaro, eds.

CODEX,
L. Pasquini et al. (incl J. Liske), 2010, in "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III", Proceedings of the SPIE, 7735, 77352F, I. McLean, S.K. Ramsay, H. Takami, eds.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA),
S.P. Driver and the GAMA Team (incl J. Liske), 2009, in "The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context", Proceedings of IAU Symposium 254 (Copenhagen, 09-13 June 2008), 469, J. Andersen, J. Bland-Hawthorn, B. Nordström, eds.

From ESPRESSO to CODEX, (full text)
J. Liske et al., 2009, in "Science with the VLT in the ELT Era" (Garching, 08-12 October 2007), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, 243, A. Moorwood, ed.

ESPRESSO: a high resolution spectrograph for the combined coudé focus of the VLT, (full text)
L. Pasquini et al. (incl J. Liske), 2009, in "Science with the VLT in the ELT era" (Garching, 08-12 October 2007), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, 395, A. Moorwood, ed.

Exoplanets: The Road to Earth Twins, (full text)
S. Udry et al. (incl J. Liske), 2009, in "Science with the VLT in the ELT era" (Garching, 08-12 October 2007), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, 155, A. Moorwood, ed.

The CODEX-ESPRESSO experiment: Cosmic dynamics, fundamental physics, planets and much more...,
S. Cristiani et al. (incl J. Liske), 2008, in "A Century of Cosmology" (San Servolo, 27-31 August 2007), Il Nuovo Cimento, 122 B, 1165, G. Chincarini, P. Saracco, M. Bolzonella, eds.

The Hubblecast - the world's first full HD video podcast?,
L.L. Christensen, M. Kornmesser, R.Y. Shida, W. Gater, J. Liske, 2008, in "Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2007", Proceedings of an IAU Commission 55 conference (Athens, 08-11 October 2007), 392, L.L. Christensen, M. Zoulias, I. Robson, eds.

GAMA: A new galaxy survey,
I. Baldry, J. Liske, S.P. Driver and the GAMA Team, 2008, in "Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges", Proceedings of IAU Symposium 245 (Oxford, 16-20 July 2007), 83, M. Bureau, E. Athanassoula, B. Barbuy, eds.

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: the severe attenuation of bulge flux by dusty spiral discs,
S.P. Driver and the MGC Team (incl J. Liske), 2008, in "Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges", Proceedings of IAU Symposium 245 (Oxford, 16-20 July 2007), 403, M. Bureau, E. Athanassoula, B. Barbuy, eds.

CODEX/ESPRESSO: the era of precision spectroscopy,
V. D'Odorico, for the CODEX/ESPRESSO team (incl J. Liske), 2007, in "LI Congresso Nazionale della Societa Astronomica Italiana" (Florence, 17-20 April 2007), Mem. S.A.It., 75, 282.

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: Science highlights,
S.P. Driver, J. Liske, A.W. Graham, 2007, in "From Stars to Galaxies: Building up the Pieces to Build up the Universe" (Venice, 16-20 October 2006), ASP Conference Proceedings, 374, 481, A. Vallenari, R. Tantalo, L. Portinari, A. Moretti, eds.

CODEX,
L. Pasquini et al. (incl J. Liske), 2008, in "Precision Spectroscopy in Astrophysics", Proceedings of the ESO/Lisbon/Aveiro Conference (Aveiro, 11-15 September 2006), ESO Astrophysics Symposia, 249, N.C. Santos, L. Pasquini, A.C.M. Correia, M. Romaniello, eds.

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: Galaxy Bimodality,
S.P. Driver, J. Liske, A.W. Graham, 2007, in "Galaxy Evolution Across the Hubble Time", Proceedings of IAU Symposium 235 (Prague, 14-17 August 2006), 17, F. Combes, J. Palous, eds.

The Local Supermassive Black Hole Mass Function from 10,000 Galaxies and the M_bh-concentration Relation,
A. Graham, S.P. Driver, P.D. Allen, J. Liske, 2006, 208th AAS meeting (Calgary, 4-8 June 2006), Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 38, 95.

CODEX: measuring the acceleration of the universe and beyond,
L. Pasquini, S. Cristiani, H. Dekker, M. Haehnelt, P. Molaro, F. Pepe, G. Avila, B. Delabre, S. D'Odorico, J. Liske, P. Shaver, P. Bonifacio, S. Borgani, V. D'Odorico, E. Vanzella, F. Bouchy, M. Dessauges, C. Lovis, M. Mayor, D. Queloz, S. Udry, M. Murphy, M. Viel, A. Grazian, S. Levshakov, L. Moscardini, T. Wiklind, S. Zucker, 2006, in "The Scientific Requirements for Extremely Large Telescopes", Proceedings of IAU Symposium 232 (Cape Town, 14-18 November 2005), 193, P.A. Whitelock, B. Leibundgut, M. Dennefeld, eds.

CODEX,
L. Pasquini, S. Cristiani, H. Dekker, M. Haehnelt, P. Molaro, F. Pepe, G. Avila, B. Delabre, S. D'Odorico, J. Liske, P. Shaver, P. Bonifacio, S. Borgani, V. D'Odorico, E. Vanzella, F. Bouchy, M. Dessauges, C. Lovis, M. Mayor, D. Queloz, S. Udry, M. Murphy, M. Viel, A. Grazian, S. Levshakov, L. Moscardini, T. Wiklind, S. Zucker, 2006, in "Instrumentation for Extremely Large Telescopes", Proceedings of a Ringberg Workshop (Ringberg, 25-29 July 2005), MPIA Special Publication 0106, 127, T. Herbst, ed.

The Cosmological Dynamics Experiment, (full text)
J. Liske for the CODEX Team, 2006, in "Beyond Einstein - Physics for the 21st Century", Proceedings of EPS-13 (Bern, 11-15 July 2005), 17, A.M. Cruise, L. Ouwehand, eds.

Measuring Structural Properties of Galaxies in the Local Universe, (full text)
P.D. Allen, S.P. Driver, J. Liske, A.W. Graham, 2007, in "Island Universes - Structure and Evolution of Disk Galaxies" (Terschelling, 3-8 July 2005), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, 23, R.S. de Jong, ed.

The Bivariate Brightness Distribution of Galaxy Disks, (full text)
J. Liske, S.P. Driver, P.D. Allen, 2007, in "Island Universes - Structure and Evolution of Disk Galaxies" (Terschelling, 3-8 July 2005), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, 531, R.S. de Jong, ed.

The Bivariate Brightness Distributions of Bulges and Disks, (full text)
J. Liske, S.P. Driver, P.D. Allen, 2006, in "The Fabulous Destiny of Galaxies: Bridging Past and Present", Proceedings of the Vth Marseille International Cosmology Conference (Marseille, 20-24 June 2005), 81, V. Le Brun, A. Mazure, S. Arnouts, D. Burgarella, eds.

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: the nearby supermassive black hole mass function,
S.P. Driver, A.W. Graham, P.D. Allen, J. Liske, 2006, in "The Fabulous Destiny of Galaxies: Bridging Past and Present", Proceedings of the Vth Marseille International Cosmology Conference (Marseille, 20-24 June 2005), 409, V. Le Brun, A. Mazure, S. Arnouts, D. Burgarella, eds.

The Bivariate Brightness Distribution of Galaxies as a Function of Spectral Type,
N.J.G. Cross, S.P. Driver, D.J. Lemon, J. Liske, W.J. Couch and the 2dFGRS Team, 2002, 200th AAS meeting (Albuquerque, 2-6 June 2002), Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, 703.

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue,
D.J. Lemon, J. Liske, S.P. Driver, N.J.G. Cross, 2002, in "A New Era in Cosmology" (Durham, 11-15 September 2001), ASP Conference Proceedings, 283, 117, N. Metcalfe, T. Shanks, eds.

Variations in the Bivariate Brightness Distribution with different galaxy types,
N.J.G. Cross, S.P. Driver, D.J. Lemon, J. Liske, 2002, in "A New Era in Cosmology" (Durham, 11-15 September 2001), ASP Conference Proceedings, 283, 51, N. Metcalfe, T. Shanks, eds.

Evidence of Structure in the Lyman Alpha Forest, (full text)
J. Liske, J.K. Webb, 1999, in "Looking Deep in the Southern Sky", Proceedings of the Joint ESO/Australia Workshop (Sydney, 10-12 December 1997), ESO Astrophysics Symposia, 234, F. Morganti, W.J. Couch, eds.

Structure in the Lyman Alpha Forest,
J. Liske, J.K. Webb, 1997, in "Structure and Evolution of the IGM from QSO Absorption Line Systems", Proceedings of the 13th IAP Colloquium (Paris, 1-5 July 1997), 428, P. Petitjean, S. Charlot, eds.

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Technical publications

Top Level Requirements for ELT-HIRES,
J. Liske (editor and co-author) et al., 2014, ESO publication ESO-204697

Top Level Requirements for ELT-CAM,
J. Liske (editor and co-author) et al., 2013, ESO publication ESO-193104

The E-ELT Design Reference Mission,
J. Liske (editor and co-author) et al., 2011, ESO publication E-TRE-ESO-080-0717

The E-ELT Design Reference Science Plan,
A. Küpcü-Yoldaş, M. Kissler-Patig, J. Liske, 2011, ESO publication E-TRE-ESO-080-0840

CODEX Phase A Executive Summary,
L. Pasquini et al. (incl J. Liske), 2010, ESO publication E-TRE-ESO-573-0642

CODEX Phase A Science Case,
M. Haehnelt et al. (incl J. Liske), 2010, ESO publication E-TRE-IOA-573-0001

OWL Instrument Concept Study: COsmic Dynamics EXperiment (CODEX),
L. Pasquini et al. (incl J. Liske), 2005, ESO publication OWL-CSR-ESO-00000-0160

Automated detection and analysis of object motion in CCD sky images,
M. Ashley, J. Liske, C. Bembrick, B. Carter, P. Mitchell, 1996, UNSW, project report for Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company

Theses

Cosmology with the Lyman Alpha Forest,
J. Liske, 2000, Ph.D. thesis, University of New South Wales

Large Scale Structure in the Lyman Alpha Forest,
J. Liske, 1997, Diplom (~MSc) thesis, University of Bonn

Other publications

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Bulge-disk decomposition of KiDS and VIKING data in the nearby universe,
S. Casura, J. Liske, A.S.G.Robotham, D.S. Taranu, J. Laine, 2019, poster presentation at "The Art of Measuring Galaxy Physical Properties" (Milano, 18-22 November 2019)

Report on the ESO Workshop "Preparing for 4MOST — A Community Workshop Introducing ESO's Next-Generation Spectroscopic Survey Facility",
J. Liske, V. Mainieri, 2019, The Messenger, 177, 61

4MOST: Project overview and information for the First Call for Proposals,
R.S. de Jong et al. (incl J. Liske), 2019, The Messenger, 175, 3

4MOST Scientific Operations,
C.J. Walcher et al. (incl J. Liske), 2019, The Messenger, 175, 12

4MOST Survey Strategy Plan,
G. Guiglion et al. (incl J. Liske), 2019, The Messenger, 175, 17

4MOST Consortium Survey 7: Wide-Area VISTA Extragalactic Survey (WAVES),
S.P. Driver, J. Liske et al., 2019, The Messenger, 175, 46

Alles in Echt-Zeit!,
J. Liske, 2018, forschung, 3, 10

Constructing the E-ELT,
T. de Zeeuw, R. Tamai, J. Liske, 2014, The Messenger, 158, 3

An Expanded View of the Universe,
M. Kissler-Patig et al. (incl J. Liske), 2011, E-ELT Science Case

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Successes, Progress and Plans,
A. Hopkins et al. (incl J. Liske), 2011, AAO Observer, 119, 6

A Sneak Preview of the E-ELT Design Reference Science Plan Questionnaire Results,
M. Kissler-Patig, A. Küpcü-Yoldaş, J. Liske, 2009, The Messenger, 138, 11

Report on the ESO Workshop E-ELT Design Reference Mission and Science Plan,
I. Hook, J. Liske, D. Villegas, M. Kissler-Patig, 2009, The Messenger, 137, 51

GAMA: towards a physical understanding of galaxy formation,
S.P. Driver, P. Norberg, I.K. Baldry, S.P. Bamford, A.M. Hopkins, J. Liske, J. Loveday, J.A. Peacock and the GAMA Team, 2009, Astronomy & Geophysics, 50, 5.12

E-ELT and the Cosmic Expansion History – A Far Stretch?,
J. Liske and the CODEX Team, 2008, The Messenger, 133, 10

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA),
S.P. Driver and the GAMA Team (incl J. Liske), 2008, AAO Newsletter, 114, 3

Why we need survey-style bulge-disk decomposition,
J. Liske, S.P. Driver, poster presentation at the 1st Subaru International Conference "Panoramic Views of Galaxy Formation and Evolution" (Hayama, 11-16 December 2007)

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) - The case for a new redshift survey of 250,000 galaxies,
I. Baldry, S. Driver, A. Hopkins, J. Liske, R. Nichol, P. Norberg, J. Peacock and the GAMA team, poster presentation at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting (Preston, 16-20 April 2007) and at the IAU Symposium 245 "Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges" (Oxford, 16-20 July 2007)

A new understanding of the visible Universe,
S.P. Driver, J. Liske, 2007, PPARC Frontiers, 26, ?

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue,
S.P. Driver, J. Liske, A.W. Graham, 2007, AAO Newsletter, 111, 5

CODEX: Measuring the Expansion of the Universe (and beyond),
L. Pasquini, S. Cristiani, H. Dekker, M. Haehnelt, P. Molaro, F. Pepe, G. Avila, B. Delabre, S. D'Odorico, J. Liske, P. Shaver, P. Bonifacio, S. Borgani, V. D'Odorico, E. Vanzella, F. Bouchy, M. Dessauges, C. Lovis, M. Mayor, D. Queloz, S. Udry, M. Murphy, M. Viel, A. Grazian, S. Levshakov, L. Moscardini, T. Wiklind, S. Zucker, 2005, The Messenger, 122, 10

CODEX - Cosmic Dynamics Experiment,
J. Liske, L. Pasquini for the CODEX Team, poster presentation at the conference "Open Questions in Cosmology: the First Billion Years" (Garching, 22-26 August 2005)

The Bivariate Brightness Distribution of Galaxy Disks,
J. Liske, S.P. Driver, P.D. Allen, poster presentation at the conference "Island Universes - Structure and Evolution of Disk Galaxies" (Terschelling, 3-8 July 2005)

First Light of SINFONI at the VLT,
H. Bonnet et al. (incl J. Liske), 2004, The Messenger, 117, 17

PD2H: A New Survey to Measure the Primordial Deuterium Abundance,
J.K. Webb, A. Fernández-Soto, J. Liske, A. Ortiz-Gil, R.F. Carswell, A. Vidal-Madjar, M. Lemoine, S. Burles, poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia (Sydney, 9-12 July 1999)

A Composite z ~ 3.5 QSO Spectrum,
A. Fernández-Soto, J. Liske, J.K. Webb, poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia (Sydney, 9-12 July 1999)

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