About Me

My name is Fabian Polnitzky and I work as an astrophysicist.

Currently I am a PhD student at the RWTH Aachen University in the group of Philipp Mertsch and also part of the mw-atlas project. There I work on the inference of the Milky Way’s structure, focusing on the interstellar medium’s spatial distribution. Specifically, my goal is to connect the distribution of hydrogen gas and dust in our Galaxy and study the correlation of these two components. To do this, I use methods of Bayesian Inference and Information Field Theory and all-sky observations in the optical and radio wavelengths.

Prior to that, I was a Master student at the University of Vienna in the group of João Alves. There I worked on the timescales of protoplanetary disc evolution and dispersion, and I still do occasionally when I find the time for it. Using the results of a clustering algorithm for young stellar clusters from the group, we determined the lifetime of protoplanetary discs in the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. Our results are twice as large as other estimates, which is due to the data set encompassing one star-forming region only and our statistical treatment of the inference process. I worked with infrared all-sky surveys to detect the presence of discs around the young stellar objects in this project.

During my studies I caught my interest in methods of Bayesian inference and machine learning and I enjoy applying these methods to astrophysical problems ever since. I am also passionate about science communication and outreach programs for the next generation of physicists.