Claudia Felser (28 July 1962) is a German solid state chemist and materials scientist. She is currently a director of the

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids The Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (MPI CPfS) () is a research institute of the Max Planck Society. Located in Dresden, Germany, the institute primarily conducts basic research in the natural sciences in the fields of physic ...

. Felser was elected as a member into the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2020 for the prediction and discovery of engineered quantum materials ranging from Heusler compounds to topological insulators.

Education and career

Claudia Felser was born in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

, Germany in 1962. Felser studied chemistry and physics at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne () is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 45,187 students. The Universit ...

, completing her diploma in solid state chemistry (1989) and her doctorate in physical chemistry (1994). After postdoctoral fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany (1994-1995) with Arndt Simon and Ole Krogh Andersen, she moved to the

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

(CNRS) in Nantes, France (1995-1996), where she worked in the group of Jean Rouxel. Afterwards, she joined the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in 1996 as an assistant professor (C1). She resided there in 2002 and was appointed to a full professor (C4) in 2003. In 1999, she was a visiting professor at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

and, in 2000, at the University of Caen. From 2009 to 2010 she was a visiting professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and in 2019 visiting professor 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 ...

in the department of Physics/ Applied Physics. Since September 2011 she is a director of the

and Professor hon. at the

TU Dresden TU Dresden (for , abbreviated as TUD), also as the Dresden University of Technology, is a public research university in Dresden, Germany. It is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony a ...

. Since June 2023, Felser has been Vice President of the Max Planck Society (CPT section).

Research

Her initial research interests include Heusler compound and related filled tetrahedral structure types, the design, synthesis and physical investigation of new quantum materials, and materials for energy technologies (solar cells, thermoelectrics, catalysis, spintronics). The physical investigations are executed on bulk material, thin films and artificial superstructures. Her current research focuses on relativistic materials science. Felser, along with collaborators, developed the field of topological quantum chemistry, which involves the design, synthesis, and realization of new multifunctional materials guided by theory. In particular, she focuses on new materials for quantum technologies such as topological insulators, Weyl and Dirac semimetals, skyrmions,

superconductors Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases ...

, new fermions, and new quasiparticles ( axions, majorana, parafermions, etc.). Winners of the 2019 APS DMP Awards

Bibliography

Three of her most-cited publications are: * * *

Awards and honors

* 2025: Foreign Member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

* 2024: Von Hippel Award * 2023: EPS CMD Europhysics Prize * 2022: Member of the Academy od Sciences and Literature * 2002: Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences * 2022: Liebig Commemorative Medal of the GDCh (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker) * 2022: Max Born Medal and Prize of the German Physical Society (DPG) and the British Institute of Physics (IOP) * 2021: International Member of National Academy of Science (NAS), US * 2020: International Member of

(NAE), US * 2019: APS James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials with Bernevig and Dai * 2018: Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina * 2016: Elected fellow of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

(magnetic society) * 2015: Tsungming Tu Award * 2014: Alexander M. Cruickshank Lecturer Award * 2013: Elected

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 ...

(APS) fellow (Division of Condensed Matter Physics) * 2010: Nakamura Lecture Award of the University of California Santa Barbara * 2001: Order of Merit (Landesverdienstorden) of the federal state

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

for the foundation of the first NAT-LAB for school students at the University Mainz with a focus in female school students She is the chairwoman of a German Research Foundation research group. She was a member of the 13th Bundesversammlung (Germany).

Personal life

Claudia Felser is married to the physicist Stuart S. P. Parkin. She has one daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Felser, Claudia 1962 births 21st-century German chemists 21st-century German physicists 21st-century German women scientists German women chemists German women physicists Living people People from Aachen Princeton University faculty Academic staff of the University of Caen Normandy University of Cologne alumni Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina German materials scientists Solid state chemists Chemical physicists Materials scientists and engineers Max Planck Society people Max Planck Institute directors Fellows of the American Physical Society Foreign members of the Royal Society