Dr. Mirko Krumpe

Research Interests:

What does the Universe look like in X-rays?
How do supermassive black holes in the center of Galaxies change over time?
How are supermassive black holes distributed in the Universe?
What do we learn about supermassive black holes if we observe them in different wavelength ranges?

Briefly about me:

Since 2015, I have been consistently acquiring my own research grants (DFG+DLR) to fund my research projects at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP). Previously, I was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and a fellow at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching. My initial research as a postdoc was conducted at the University of California, San Diego. I received my PhD degree at the University of Potsdam and studied physics both there and at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

X-ray Astronomy

Postdoctoral Researcher

Office: SH/229
Phone: +49 331 7499 334
mkrumpe@aip.de

Leibniz-Institut
für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP)
An der Sternwarte 16
14482 Potsdam

Team Members: Changing-state AGN

Over the last few years, I raised several soft money funds to establish my own research team at the AIP. We are conducting research aimed at understanding an extraordinary subpopulation of supermassive black holes: changing-state/changing-look AGN. This particular subject is generating rapidly growing interest in the research community:

Name	Position	Research Project	Funding agency
Dr. Mirko Krumpe	Postdoc	Studies of highly X-ray variable AGN with XMM-Newton	DLR/2 years
Dr. David Homan	Postdoc	Follow-up observations of significantly changing AGN with XMM-Newton	DLR/3 years
M. Sc. Tathagata Saha	PhD Student	Studies of the changing-look AGN Mrk 1018 with XMM-Newton and Hubble	DLR/3 years
M. Sc. Dusán Tubín Arenas	PhD Student	Confirming SMBH binaries with XMM-Newton	DLR/3 years
Sabina Bahic	Master Student/Student Research Assistant	Statistical studies of changing-state AGN with eROSITA
Silvia Carolina Rueda Vargas	Master Student	Properties of the X-ray absorber in type II AGN
Dominic Taylor	Visiting Master Student	Search for changing-state AGN with XMM-Newton

former group members
M. Sc. Roisín Brogan	PhD Student	Studies of the changing-look AGN Mrk 1018 with XMM-Newton and Hubble	DLR/3 years
Nico Manthey	Master Student/Student Research Assistant	Image classification with machine learning techniques and automatic web searches

Beside my astrophysical research, I am actively engaged in the public outreach activities of our institute and in educating the next generation of scientists. You will most likely meet me when I am giving a tour over our campus or leading a public observation on one of our impressive historical telescopes. These events are not to be missed!

More recently, I have had the pleasure of supervising a large number of high school students. I take a great interest in inspiring the younger generation to get involved with astrophysics astrophysics and the fascinating research projects we are doing at the institute. I have also been involved in science communication work; trying to explain newsworthy and complex astrophysical processes in an accessible manner in numerous radio interviews and newspaper articles.

Publications

Latest refereed publications, retrieved from NASA ADS:

The population of tidal disruption events discovered with eROSITA

Grotova, I., ... Krumpe, M., ..., 2025
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 697, A159; published May 2025

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202553669, NASA ADS