Annual Report 2011 Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

86 V. People and Events
Credit: D. Gouliermis
V.2 Haus der Astronomie – Centre for Astronomy Education and Outreach
2011 was a crucial year for the Haus der Astronomie
(HdA). Where we had spent the last two years establishing
the HdA as an institution, this December saw the
official opening of our spectacular, galaxy-shaped building.
Thus, our mission this year was to hit the ground
running: As soon as possible after the opening, we wanted
to make the best use possible of the building and
the new opportunity it represented. That meant having
almost all of the center’s planned outreach activities already
in place by the end of the year.
We started into 2011 with an experienced team: Markus
Pössel as the HdA’s Managing Scientist (funded by
Max Planck Society) had been with the center since
2009. Olaf Fischer (funded by the City of Heidelberg’s
Foundation for Youth and Science), our resident specialist
for high-school astronomy, had moved to the
HdA in late 2009. Carolin Liefke (funded by the Klaus
Tschira Foundation and Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry
of Science and Research), whose focus areas include
student research and university teaching for future
physics teachers, has been with us since spring
2010. Cecilia Scorza, who specializes in middle school
astronomy education, joined us in 2009; since early
2011, she works at HdA as a project scientist funded by
the Special Research Programme SFB 881 “The Milky
Way System”. Jakob Staude, one of the driving forces
behind the HdA project as a whole, remains our mentor-in-residence.
In May, we were joined by Natalie
Fischer, who became the National Project Manager for
the EU-UNAWE project, which aims to bring astronomy
to young, disadvantaged children; also for EU-UN-
AWE, the developmental psychologist, Anita Mancino,
joined our team in September. Also in September, two
teachers (Gymnasium and Realschule), on loan from
Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of Education, joined
our team: Alexander Ludwig and Tobias Schultz will
spend 50% of their time in the HdA, where, among
other tasks, they will be involved in holding highschool
student workshops. Intern Marcel Frommelt
and student assistants Stephan Fraß and Sophia Haude
completed our roster.
Our threefold mission is unchanged: To communicate
the fascination of astronomy to the general public,
to support astronomy education, and to foster the exchange
of knowledge between scientists.
Fig. V.2.1: The Haus der Astronomy at dusk (30 November
2011).