Stefan Funk

German astroparticle physicist (born 1974)

Stefan Funk

Born|

Heidelberg, Germany

Alma mater| Heidelberg University (PhD)
Awards| Shakti P. Duggal Award
Bruno Rossi Prize

Stefan Funk (born in Heidelberg in 1974) is a German astroparticle physicist. He is a professor at the Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics[1] at the FAU Erlangen-Nuernberg in Germany and an elected a fellow of the American Physical Society.[2]

## Life and scientific work

[edit]

Stefan Funk studied physics at the Humboldt University of Berlin from 1996 to 2002. Subsequently, he worked as a PhD student in the gamma-ray astrophysics group of Werner Hofmann at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physic (MPIK) in Heidelberg, where he received his PhD from Heidelberg University in 2005. The work of his doctoral thesis is the commissioning and characterisation of the central trigger system of the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) gamma-ray telescopes and the survey of the Galactic plane with H.E.S.S. at TeV energies.[3]

From 2006 to 2007 Funk worked at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, US as a postdoctoral researcher on GLAST (later Fermi-LAT), a NASA satellite that was launched on June 11, 2008, working with Roger Blandford, Elliott Bloom and Persis Drell. In 2007, he became an assistant professor in the Physics department at Stanford University and the SLAC National accelerator center. He became Associate Professor with tenure in 2013. During that time, Funk was a group leader in the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology working on high-energy astrophysics with the Fermi-LAT satellite.

He returned to Germany in 2014 to work at the Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics (ECAP) at FAU Erlangen-Nuernberg. Scientifically, he continued his work on H.E.S.S. and the Fermi-LAT, but also focussed more on research and development for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). His group is developing camera electronics for CTA and he is also involved in the scientific preparation of the observatory.[4]

## Main research areas

[edit]

Stefan Funk's area of research[5] is high energy astrophysics and astroparticle physics, in particular the search for the origin of cosmic rays using gamma rays and the understanding of the particle nature of dark matter. Funk is also involved in projects in laboratory astrophysics where astrophysical processes are reproduced in laboratory settings and in topics in astro quantum optics, such as super-high angular resolution optical intensity interferometry.

## Distinctions and awards

[edit]

Funk is a recipient of IUPAP's 2009 Shakti P. Duggal Award to recognise outstanding work by a young scientist in the field of cosmic ray physics.[6] In 2010, he received the Bruno Rossi Prize from the American Astronomical Society with the H.E.S.S. team, and in 2011 with the Fermi-LAT team.[7] He is a Thomson Reuters highly cited researcher in 2015 and 2016,[8][9] and was elected as an APS Fellow in 2016.[2]

## Publications (selection)

[edit]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (February 2022)

|

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "ECAP – Homepage of the Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics". Retrieved 2021-11-02.
2. ^ a b "List of American Physical Society Fellows (2011–)", Wikipedia, 2021-10-22, retrieved 2021-11-02
3. ^ Funk, Stefan (2005). "A new population of very high-energy gamma-ray sources detected with H.E.S.S. in the inner part of the Milky Way". archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de. doi:10.11588/heidok.00005542. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
4. ^ "Science Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator Election Results". Cherenkov Telescope Array. 2016-05-17. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
5. ^ "Prof. Dr. Stefan Funk – ECAP". Retrieved 2021-11-02.
6. ^ C4, C4 (2021-02-17). "C4: Awards - IUPAP: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics". Retrieved 2021-11-02.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
7. ^ "HEAD AAS Rossi Prize Winners | High Energy Astrophysics Division". head.aas.org. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
8. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-11-02. Retrieved 2021-11-02.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. ^ "Six FAU researchers among most highly cited in their subject › Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg". Retrieved 2021-11-02.

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* United States

Academics|

* ORCID
* ResearcherID
* Scopus
* Publons