Within the framework of the Master program of the Physics Department of the ETH Zurich, several Master thesis projects are available, and in particular:


• Observational projects that probe the physics of galaxy formation and evolution. Information on specific projects is available upon request. The projects use data from state-of-the-art surveys, including:
  • COSMOS, the multi-wavelength Cosmic Evolution Survey;
  • ULTRA-VISTA, a 1800 hour of observing time to image in the Near-Infrared in ultra-deep mode 0.75 sq degrees of the sky, allowing the selection and study of very high redshift galaxies, as a precursor to James Webb Space Telescope and the ESO 42m European Large Telescope;
  • zCOSMOS, the 600h program on the ESO 8m VLT to cover spectroscopically the COSMOS field;
  • The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 09 (UDF09), the deepest images of the far distant universe ever taken, acquired in the Near-Infrared with the Wide Field Camera-3, installed on the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2009.
  • The The Zurich ENvironmental Survey (ZENS),a survey of >>100 nearby galaxy groups to study the physics of galaxy evolution in the most typical galactic environment in the nearby universe.
• Theoretical (numerical) projects addressing fundamental questions in galaxy formation and astrophysical cosmology, particularly linked to EUCLID, the COSMIC VISIONS mission currently under study at the European Space Agency (ESA) that combines weak gravitational lensing and baryonic acoustic oscillations measurements to determine the equation of state of dark energy;
• Instrumentation/calibration projects, in particular in the context of MUSE for the VLT (and its follow-up - ERASMUS - for the ESO 42m ELT).

Interested students who wish to receive further information are welcome to visit or contact Prof. Carollo or Prof. Lilly.