Norbert Pietralla is a nuclear spectroscopist and accelerator scientist. He studied physics at the University of Cologne, had been a postdoc at Yale University, and professor for nuclear physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and at the University of Cologne. Since 2006 he is Full Professor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and Director of its Institute for Nuclear Physics. He is well-known for his research on isovector vibrational valence-shell excitations of heavy nuclei, on photonuclear reactions, on nuclear shape phase transitions, and for the establishment of the first Energy-Recovery LINAC in Germany. He has co-discovered the competitive double-Ɣ decay as a new radioactive decay mode of atomic nuclei. Pietralla has published more than 500 scientific articles.

His research has been cited more than 8,000 times by more than 3,300 scientific articles. He has supervised the completion of 48 doctoral theses by now. Some of his former PhD students are already professors and academic leaders, themselves. NP’s support for the establishment of international cooperation in science, in particular with south-east European countries, has been recognized by his honorary doctorates of the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (Romania) and by the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia (Bulgaria). Pietralla is married and has two daughters.

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