Since 2017, David Berge is a lead scientist at DESY in the division of astroparticle physics. He heads the Gamma-ray Astronomy Group at the Zeuthen site and coordinates DESY's contributions to the planned global gamma-ray observatory CTAO. His research focuses on cosmic particle accelerators and especially on multi-messenger astronomy, that is, the study of cosmic objects and events with photons, neutrinos, and gravitational waves. His group works with gamma-ray telescopes like H.E.S.S. and the future CTAO, uses multi-wavelength data from other telescopes, cooperates with DESY's IceCube neutrino group and follows up on gravitational wave alerts by LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA.

In the field of multi-messenger astronomy, much can be expected in the next few years from telescopes with large fields of view that search for weak transient light signals from gravitational wave events. One such new satellite telescopes is ULTRASAT, an Israeli project to measure UV light. Together with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and NASA, DESY will contribute to this mission. David Berge and his team at DESY are building the camera for ULTRASAT, which consists of a silicon-based (CMOS) 90-million-pixel sensor. Moreover, he coordinates an ESA mission proposal for an MeV gamma-ray satellite, newASTROGAM.

In his experimental activities, David Berge combines methods of particle physics with those of astroparticle physics, which reflects his scientific career. He started with a PhD in gamma-ray astronomy at the Max-Planck institute for nuclear physics in Heidelberg. He then switched fields and worked at CERN in ATLAS for 7 years during the LHC startup phase. In 2013, David Berge moved to Amsterdam as GRAPPA faculty member. GRAPPA is a research focus area of the University of Amsterdam at the interface of particle and astroparticle physics. In 2017, he accepted an offer for a joint professorship for particle and astroparticle physics at the Zeuthen site of DESY and the Humboldt University of Berlin. 

Academic career

Memberships and roles