Matthias Steinmetz is scientific chairman of the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam and director of the research area Extragalactic Astrophysics and Cosmology. Topics under investigation in this department extend from the formation of stars and planetary systems over the structure and evolution of galaxies and their massive black holes to the formation of galaxies, clusters of galaxies and the large scale cosmic web. Furthermore, Reasearchers in this area are participating in the development of the next generation of instruments for 8m-class telescopes like the Large Binocular Telescope and the Very Large Telescope and in the establishment of a E-science infrastructure for astronomy.

Matthias Steinmetz' personal research interests focus on the formation and evolution of galaxies, in particular the Milky Way. He has been actively engaged in performing high resolution simulation of the galaxy formation process and is the principle investigator of the RAdial Velocity Experiment RAVE, a large international collaboration to take spectra of a Million stars in the Galaxy.