Annette Zippelius (born 25 June 1949) is a German

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, Leibniz Prize winner and an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

from the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

known for her research on complex fluids and

soft matter Soft matter or soft condensed matter is a type of matter that can be deformed or structurally altered by thermal or mechanical stress which is of similar magnitude to thermal fluctuations. The science of soft matter is a subfield of condensed ...

. In 1988 she was appointed to the Chair of

Theoretical Physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

at the

, making her the first woman to be appointed as a professor of C4 physics in Germany. And in 1998, She was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize for the construction of an exact network-model with the functioning proprieties of an associative memory. Most recently, in 2023 she was awarded the University Medal "In Publica Commoda" from the

for her service to the university.

Career

Annette Zippelius studied Physics at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

in Boulder, USA. And in 1977, she finished her PhD at the Technical University München. From 1978 to 1980, she was a postdoctoral associate at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and from 1980 to 1981 was a postdoctoral associate at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. In 1983 she joined the Forschungszentrum Jülich as a researcher. She is currently an emeritus professor at the

Awards and honors

* 1993: Member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen). * 1998: Leibniz Prize of the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...

(DFG) * 2002 – 2006: Member of the Executive Board of the German Physical Society ( Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft) * 2005 – 2011: Member o
The German Council of Science and Humanities
(Wissenschaftsrat) * 2007 – 2014: Max-Planck Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen * 2008: Elected Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

* 2022:

Max Planck Medal The Max Planck Medal is the highest award of the German Physical Society , the world's largest organization of physicists, for extraordinary achievements in theoretical physics. The prize has been awarded annually since 1929, with few exceptions ...

of the German Physical Society * 2023: Awarded The University Medal "In Publica Commoda" from the

References

1949 births 20th-century German physicists 20th-century German women scientists 21st-century German physicists 21st-century German women scientists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society German women physicists Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners Living people Max Planck Society people German theoretical physicists Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Winners of the Max Planck Medal {{Germany-physicist-stub