Annual Report 2011 Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

92 V. People and Events
Credit: C. Liefke/HdA
Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) on the IASC-
Pan-starrs asteroid search (high-school students searching
for asteroids in Pan-starrs image data, with a realistic
chance of discovering previously unknown main-belt
asteroids), with Carolin Liefke supporting a total of 12
German high-school groups participating in two search
campaign. Most of our high-school student research activities
involve much smaller groups, including students
from the Hector-Seminar (C. Liefke, M. Pössel with A.
van der Wel and J. Bouwman), the International Summer
Science School Heidelberg (M. Pössel) and career orientation
as well as regular interns (O. Fischer, C. Scorza,
M. Frommelt, T. Schultz, A. Ludwig, C. Liefke, M.
Pössel).
Our intern Marcel Frommelt made his own contribution
to our program (sponsored by C. Scorza) with a research
project on a balloon mission to Titan – which included
an experimental part (a home-made balloon with
camera launched into the stratosphere) and placed first in
the regional and third in the Baden-Württemberg State
competition “Jugend forscht” in the category of Geo- and
Space Sciences.
Fig. V.2.7: The main protagonists at the official opening, left to
right: the building’s architect, Manfred Bernhardt; MPIA director
Thomas Henning; Bernhard Eitel, rector of Heidelberg
University; MPIA director Hans-Walter Rix; Markus Pössel,
managing scientist of the HdA; Peter Gruß, president of the
Max Planck Society; Theresia Bauer, minister for science, re-
Networking, cooperation and, given that we are a relatively
new institution, outreach to the other members of
the outreach community remain an important part of our
work. Notably, we guided more than 350 participants on
tours of the HdA construction site, including numerous
participants of the Astronomische Gesellschaft’s annual
meeting which, this year, took place in Heidelberg. To
keep our partner institutions up to date, we also organized
a special “HdA day” in our just-finished building in
November. An anniversary colloquium on the occasion
of the nominal retirement of MPIA/ HdA member Jakob
Staude, who serves as one of the publishers of Sterne und
Weltraum, also in November, provided excellent opportunities
for introducing ourselves to additional members
of the German outreach community. Last but certainly
not least, our grand opening, attended by, among others,
Baden-Württemberg State Minister for Science, Research
and the Arts Theresia Bauer, Baden-Württemberg
State Minister for Education, Youth and Sports Gabriele
Warminski-Leitheußer, Peter Gruss as President of the
Max Planck Society, Eckart Würzner as Lord Mayor of
the City of Heidelberg, Bernhard Eitel as Rector of the
search and the arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg; Klaus
Tschira; Gabriele Warminski-Leitheußer, minister for education,
youth and sports of the State of Baden-Württemberg;
Eckart Würzner, Lord-mayor of Heidelberg; Mathias Voss,
head of administration, MPIA; Klaus Jäger, scientific coordinator,
MPIA, and Jakob Staude. (16 December 2011).