Prof. em. Dr. Hans Martin Schmid

Additional information

Research Projects
• High resolution and high contrast instrumentation for large ground based
  telescopes
• Imaging and imaging polarimetry of planetary systems and stars with
  circumstellar matter
• Simulation of the dust scattering in circumstellar disks and shells
• High resolution imaging of solar system objects

Main hardware project:
SPHERE/VLT Planet Finder
We are part of an international consortium, which built the "SPHERE Planet Finder" instrument for an 8m VLT telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. SPHERE was installed in 2014 and since then it is one of the best, if not the best, high contrast and high resolution imager available in Astronomy. The instrument achieves an angular resolution of up to 20 milli-arcsec and it is equipped with an extreme adaptive optics (AO) system, coronagraphs and differential imagers for high contrast observations. For this instrument we were leading the development of the Zurich IMaging POLarimeter (ZIMPOL), which is the visual focal plane camera of SPHERE operating in the wavelength range from 500 to 900 nm. ZIMPOL is optimized for high performance imaging polarimetry for the search of reflecting planets and the imaging of reflected light from circumstellar disk and shells, as well as for high resolution imaging of hydrogen gas with narrow Halpha filters. ZIMPOL is used by many astronomers for their research on circumstellar disks around young stars where planet form, for studies on circumstellar shells around evolved stars, for images of the atmospheres of very extended red giant stars, for high resolution imaging of solar system objects, and for the investigation of low mass companions to stars including the search of extra-solar planets.

ETH / SPHERE hardware team:
A. Bazzon, D. Gisler, F. Joos, H.M. Schmid, P. Steiner

ETH / SPHERE science team:
H. Avenhaus, E. Buenzli, N. Engler, A. Garufi, S. Hunziker, M.R. Meyer, S.P. Quanz, H.M. Schmid, C. Thalmann, C. Tschudi

Positions, Teaching and past PhD Projects

Positions
1986-1993     Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1993-1996     Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories,
                      Canberra, Australia
1997-2001     Landessternwarte, Heidelberg, Germany
since 2001     ETH Zurich, Institute of Astronomy /
                      Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics,
                      Dept. of Physics
since 2006     Senior scientist, ETH Zurich
since 2013     Professor (Titularprofessor), ETH Zurich

Lectures:
Heidelberg:     Interstellar Matter, Binary Stars,
ETH Zurich:    Introduction to Astronomy, Interstellar and Intergalactic
                       Matter, Astronomical Instrumentation, Extrasolar Planets,
                       Astrophysics I, Astrophysics III (= Galactic Astronomy)

Supervision of Doctoral Theses:
Joos Franco, 2007:
Polarimetry of gas planets, Diss ETH No. 17051

Thalmann Christian, 2008:
Applications of high-precision polarimetry to extrasolar planet
search and solar physics, Diss ETH No. 17832

Buenzli Esther, 2011: 
Characterization of planetary systems in scattered light
with differential techniques, Diss ETH No. 19917

Bazzon Andreas, 2013:           
Polarimetry of Planets in the solar system and beyond, Diss ETH No. 21541

Avenhaus, E. Henning, 2014: 
The search for circumstellar disks and their investigation with polarimetric
differential imaging, Diss ETH No. 21750

Garufi Antonio, 2016:
Light up the trail to planets: dust in protoplanetary disks traced by
scattered light, Diss ETH No. 23326

Engler Natalia, 2018: 
Debris Disks in Polarized Light, Diss ETH No. 25120

Publications
See list of publications