CONTACT
Dr. Josefa Großschedl
Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Boční II 1401/1, 141 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic
email:
grossschedl@asu.cas.cz
ORCID:
0000-0002-6895-2804
I am an astrophysicist, currently working in the beautiful city of Prague. However, I grew up far away from any city, in a small village in Austria, Southeast Styria (Südoststeiermark, Fehring), at the joinery of my father and mother, with my four siblings, my grandmother, and a bunch of cats, geese, and chickens. My fascination for astronomy was originally ignited by my older brother, Ronni, who was the first science nerd in our family. When reading the astro books he had gathered and using his rotatable star chart, I started to become interested in the night sky, the stars, and the immense vastness of the Universe.
Orion above Fehring, Image © Josefa Großschedl 2025
Orion Nebula, Image © ESO/VISION Stefan Meingast et al. 2016
My fascination for the stars eventually led me to study
Astronomy at the University of Vienna,
where I gained my PhD in 2021 under the supervision of
João Alves.
The main target of my
PhD thesis
was the Orion star-forming complex.
The left image shows the Orion Nebula, observed in infrared light with the ESO/VISTA telescope, observed by the Vienna Survey in Orion (VISION, PI: J.Alves, Image: Stefan Meingast).
The Orion Nebula is one of the few star-forming nebulae in the night sky that is visible to the naked eye.
Orion is a prominent target for Astronomers, because it is the closest massive star-forming region to Earth, this means, it still forms very massive stars, which produce the necessary energy to bring the nebula to shine.
Check out my Research page
After completing a short PostDoc position in Vienna, I started a PostDoc and Teaching position in 2023 at the
Physics Department of the University of Cologne in the group of
Stefanie Walch-Gassner. I was teaching the "Astrophysik I" lecture, plus a seminar and exercise lessons.
In Cologne I was working with experts in simulating feedback processes in the ISM.
Check out my Research page
Arriving in Cologne, Image © Simon Spitzer 2023
Praha, Image © Josefa Großschedl 2025
In September 2024 I moved to Prague to start my current postdoctoral fellowship in the research group of Jan Palouš and Richard Wünsch,
at the Astronomical Institute (ASU) of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) -
Astronomický ústav Akademie věd České republiky.
My fellowship is funded by
MERIT
(MSCA-COFUND Horizon Europe - Grant agreement
101081195),
which is co-funded by the European Union, the
Central Bohemian Region,
and the Czech Academy of Sciences.
See Funding details
From Oktober 2025 to March 2026 I was completing a Secondment (research visit) at the
TU Berlin (Fachgruppe Astronomie und Astrophysik FGAA)
as part of the MERIT fellowship.
There I collaborated with the group of
Dieter Breitschwerdt.
We are interested in past interactions of our Solar System with its Galactic environment.
We study the orbital path of the Sun in relation to young stars and open clusters to better understand the origin of certain radioisotopes that have been found in Earth's crust.
Radioisotopes like Iron-60 are primarily formed in supernova events, hence, when massive stars die.
Massive stars die young, therefore, we are studying the recent interactions of the Sun with star-forming regions or young open clusters.
Close approaches would indicate that products from supernovae might have reached our Solar System.
Check out my Research page
Berlin, Image © Simon Spitzer 2025