caption doctoral_advisor work_institution birth_place nationality field birth_date residence image article_title name
hans-walter rix -lrb- 2009 photo -rrb- simon white max planck institute for astronomy erlangen , germany germany physics , astronomy 16 january 1964 germany hanswalterrix2009.jpg hans-walter rix
 hans-walter rix
hans-walter rix

hans-walter rix is a german astronomer and director of the max planck institute for astronomy in heidelberg .
he is the son of the linguist helmut rix .
he was educated at the university of freiburg , the university of munich and the university of arizona , tucson , where he received his ph.d. in astronomy in 1991 .
he was hubble fellow at the institute for advanced study in princeton 1991-1994 , then returned to the university of arizona , and has been director of the max planck institute for astronomy in heidelberg since 1999 .
rix has been working on the evolution of galaxies .
his doctoral thesis was titled `` disk components in early type galaxies '' and he has , as of 2011 , published 290 papers in peer-reviewed journals .
he has made important contributions to the structure and dynamics of galaxies , to the evolution of galaxies since the early epochs of the universe , and the formation of our own milky way and its satellites .
