Personal Information Summary - Dr. Roland Diehl
Dr. Roland Diehl is research scientist at the Max Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik (MPE). He started his career from nuclear physics (diploma at the Mainz Linear Accelerator lab in Mainz), joining the staff of the gamma-ray astronomy group at MPE in 1979.
Experimental nuclear physics determined his work and interest; he has been taking part in development of pioneering telescopes for the MeV regime of astronomy at MPE, he lead the calibrations of the COMPTEL telescope, and furthers adequate analysis methods required for these complex measurements. He chairs the Data Analysis Groups, both for the COMPTEL (since 1982) and the INTEGRAL SPI (since 1995) telescope projects. He is Co-Principal Investigator of the SPI Gamma-Ray Spectrometer instrument aboard ESA's INTEGRAL satellite. As part of the Munich Cluster of Excellence "Origin and Evolution of the Universe" he is deputy coordinator of its Research Area G on "Origin of the Heavy Elements and Chemical Evolution".
His astrophysical interest is focused on nuclear astrophysics, interpreting gamma-ray line measurements in their context of nucleosynthesis and cosmic ray physics. He pioneered the imaging of the sky in the radioactive-decay gamma-ray line from 26Al, and is involved in nucleosynthesis studies from supernovae, stars, and novae, employing other gamma-ray line measurements.
Dr. Roland Diehl holds a doctoral degree in physics from the Technische Universität München (1988). He received his Habilitation in 1998, and teaches at the Technische Universität München. He was nominated "Privatdozent at  Technische Universität München" in 1999.


Details
Education

High School in Bad Kreuznach, Abitur 1972

Study of Physics 1972-1978 at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz; Diploma in Nuclear Physics (Thesis on Construction and Calibration of a Calorimeter for 350 MeV Photons from Mainz Electron Linear Accelerator) Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, 1978

Ph.D. in Physics & Astronomy (Ph.D Thesis on MeV Gamma-radiation from the Galactic-Center Region), with Honors, Technical University of Munich, 1988

Professional Carreer Milestones

Siemens GmbH, R&D Dept., 1978-1979

DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, GSOC, 1979

Max Planck Institut f. extraterr. Physik, Staff of Gamma-Ray Astronomy Group,  1979-today

Habilitation, Technical University München, 1998

Privatdozent at Techn. University München, 1999

Experience

Dr. Diehl's primary research interests have been in gamma-ray astronomy, specifically nuclear astrophysics with gamma-ray lines from radioactivities. He has published several review articles in refereed journals on this subject, and is an internationally recognized expert in this field. The astrophysical research with gamma-ray lines at the MPE are led by Dr. Diehl, including the analysis of complex measurement data of the COMPTEL telescope. Dr. Diehl has been the principal scientist in developing the data analysis software system for the COMPTEL gamma-ray telescope aboard the NASA Compton Observatory, he has been chairing the Data Analysis Group of the COMPTEL collaboration. He also was responsible for the ground calibration of this instrument with radioactive sources and accelerator setups. Dr. Diehl is a Co-I and designated Co-PI of the SPI spectrometer of the INTEGRAL gamma-ray mission launched in 2002. He chaired the user committee of the Garching Computing Centre of the Max Planck Gesellschaft, and co-chaired MPE's division for Computing and Data Analysis, being coordinator of computing facilities of MPE's gamma-ray group.

Dr. Diehl has published over 300 papers in refereed journals, conference proceedings, and books, has presented over 150 talks at international institutes and conferences, and organized several international workshops. He has been supervising students in their Ph.D. and Diploma thesis work, and he has been teaching astrophysics courses at MPE and the Technical University München's Physics Departement.

Dr. Diehl joined the Max Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik in 1979 as a member of the MPE Compton telescope team (then headed by Volker Schönfelder with Klaus Pinkau directing MPE's Gamma-Ray Astronomy). Today he is staff scientist in MPE's gamma-ray astronomy group now led by Jochen Greiner, as part of MPE's high-energy astrophysics research directed by Günther Hasinger. Here he is leading nuclear astrophysics activities of the group, and he is Co-PI of the SPI Instrument on ESA’s INTEGRAL Mission, and Co-I on NASA's GLAST Mission's Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor and the GRIPS next-generation project study of this group.

Societies and Committees

German Physical Society 'Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft' (DPG); German Astronomers Society 'Astronomische Gesellschaft' (AG)

Americal Physical Society (APS) and Americal Astronomy Society (AAS); Member of the Interational Astronomy Union (IAU)

Advisory Board Member of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA) (2003-2006)

Some Recent Publications

1.      Radioactive 26Al from massive stars in the Galaxy ,
Diehl R. et al., Nature, 439, 45-47 (2006)

2.      Gamma-Ray Line Observations from Cosmic Nuclei
Diehl R., Nucl. Phys. A 718, 52c - 60c (2003)

3.      Line shape diagnostics of Galactic 26Al
Kretschmer K., Diehl R., Hartmann D.H.,
A&A 412, L47-L51 (2003)

4.      Massive Stars in Cygnus & Orion
Diehl R., et al., IAU  S-212, p 706--709 (2003)

5.      1.8 MeV Gamma-Rays from the Vela Region
Diehl R. et al., Astroph. Letters and Communications 38, 357 (1999)

6.      Gamma-Ray Line Emission from Radioactivities in Stars and Galaxies
Diehl R., Timmes F.X., PASP, Vol. 110, 748, 637-659 (1998)

7.      44Ti gets a lifetime
Woosley S.E., Diehl R., Physics World, 11, 7, 22 (1998)

8.      Modelling the 1.809 MeV Sky: Tracers of Massive Star Nucleosynthesis
Diehl R. et al., A&AS, 120,4, 321 (1996)

9.      Radioactive 26Al in the Galaxy: Observations versus Theory
Prantzos N., R. Diehl, Phys.Rep. 267, 1, 1-69 (1996)

10.    The Galaxy in the 26Al Gamma-Ray Line at 1.809 MeV.
Diehl R. et al., A&A 298, 445-460 (1995)

last updated: Nov 2007