Field of Work
Alfred Krabbe investigates the centers of active galaxies and their interactions with their environment. He also studies the contexts of black holes, especially in the center of the Milky Way. He discovered the pile of helium stars near the black hole together with Reinhard Genzel. At times, he also thinks about exoplanets.
Personal Information
Prof. Krabbe (born 1956) studied physics at the University of Münster (1976-1979) and at the University of Heidelberg (1979-1983) and wrote his diploma thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy with Dietrich Lemke. He received his doctorate in 1987 under Hans Elsässer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and then moved to Reinhard Genzel at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching as head of the research group infrared spectroscopy. In 1997, he moved to the DLR Institute of Space Sensor Technology in Berlin - Adlershof as the scientific director of an astronomical working group, where he took over the management of the department of infrared astronomy in 1999. In 2000, he joined the University of California Berkeley as Senior Fellow, where he led the Experimental Infrared Astrophysics research group at the Physics Department.
Krabbe was appointed Full Professor of Physics at the University of Cologne in 2003 and completed his habilitation in 2004 at the Technical University of Berlin. In 2009, he was appointed Professor of Aircraft Astronomy and Extraterrestrial Space Missions in conjunction with the management of the German SOFIA Institute.
Since the beginning of 2019, Alfred Krabbe has been Director of the Evangelical Research Academy of the Union of Protestant Churches (UEK).