Rate My Professor Maarten Baes

Maarten Baes is a senior full professor of astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy within Ghent University's Faculty of Sciences. He obtained his PhD in Astrophysics from Ghent University in 2001. After postdoctoral research positions in the United Kingdom and Chile, he returned to Ghent University as a full-time professor of astronomy in 2004. Baes teaches multiple courses across the BSc and MSc programs in Physics and Astronomy, including Extragalactic Astronomy and Observational Techniques in Astronomy, as well as contributions to the Master of Space Studies program organized jointly by Ghent University and KU Leuven.

Baes's research specializes in multi-wavelength modeling of galaxy evolution, emphasizing the dusty interstellar medium, 3D radiative transfer simulations, and bridging theoretical models with observations spanning UV to radio wavelengths. He is a principal developer of SKIRT, an advanced 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code for simulating continuum radiation in dusty astrophysical systems, which incorporates built-in geometries, dust models, and interfaces with hydrodynamical simulations such as EAGLE, IllustrisTNG, and TNG50. His work includes generating synthetic multi-wavelength images and spectral energy distributions to study dust attenuation and emission. Baes has led or participated in key projects like DustPedia for analyzing far-infrared and submillimeter data of nearby galaxies, Herschel Space Observatory programs on edge-on spirals and Virgo Cluster ellipticals, and preparations for instruments on JWST (MIRI), ELT (METIS), SPICA, Athena, and Euclid. Ongoing FWO-funded initiatives under his supervision include Unveiling the hidden cold dust in nearby spiral galaxies (2023–2026) and The nature and origin of the putative dusty torus in active galactic nuclei (2025–2028). With over 35,000 citations on Google Scholar, his influential publications encompass the TNG50-SKIRT atlas (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2024), self-consistent dynamical models with finite extent (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2023–2026), and Euclid preparation papers on low surface brightness galaxies and stellar populations (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2025–2026).