Innsbruck Physics Lecture - Tue, 04 Oct 2011, 17:15 lecture hall A
Reinhard Genzel - Max-Planck-Institut, Garching
Wim Ubachs obtained his PhD degree in 1986 from the University of Nijmegen, for a thesis on high resolution laser spectroscopy. In 1986 he was a visiting scientist at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (Peoples Republic of China) and in 1987-1988 he was a Post-Doctoral fellow at the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University (USA) in the group of Prof. R.N. Zare.
Since 1988 he is with VU University in Amsterdam, in the period 2000-2010 as Director of the Laser Centre VU. In the period 2001-2004 he has held a part-time Professorship at the Eindhoven University of Technology, in 2002 he was Guest Professor at ETH Zürich, and in summer 2006 at the Tokyo University of Science. Since 2003 he is full professor of Atomic, Molecular and Laser Physics at VU, mainly working in laser spectroscopy, where XUV-lasers is his specialty. For the past six years he has become deeply involved in the issue of drifting fundamental constants, and therewith in astronomical observations. He has co-authored over 200 scientific papers (see http://www.nat.vu.nl/~wimu/PUBS.html ).
Massive Black Holes and Galaxies
Evidence has been accumulating for several decades that many galaxies harbor central mass concentrations that may be in the form of black holes with masses between a few million to a few billion time the mass of the Sun. I will discuss measurements over the last two decades, employing adaptive optics imaging and spectroscopy on large ground-based telescopes that prove the existence of such a massive black hole in the Center of our Milky Way, beyond any reasonable doubt. These data also provide key insights into its properties and environment. Future interferometric studies of the Galactic Center black hole promise to be able to test gravity in its strong field limit. I will also briefly discuss the cosmological evolution of massive black holes.
