ELEMENTS Principal Investigator Hannah Elfner was recently appointed as Senior Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) \u2013 just in time for her 40th birthday. She is the first woman to make it into this highest category at the theoretical research institute \u2013 comparable to a W3 professorship at the university. \u201cWe appoint experienced and outstanding researchers with \u2013 and Hannah Elfner is absolutely one of them, as now the youngest member,\u201d says FIAS Director Eckhard Elsen. The Senior Fellows, currently twelve in number, form the FIAS Faculty, advise the independent research institute, lead the research groups, and appoint the Fellows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elfner\u2019s previous round birthday already brought her a well-deserved promotion: At 30, she was named one of Germany\u2019s youngest female physics professors \u2013 still an exception, at least in theoretical physics. \u201cI am fascinated by how the smallest building blocks of our world work \u2013 that is what I want to understand,\u201d says Elfner. She is working on a state of matter that existed in the early universe only microseconds after the Big Bang. \u201cAfterwards, the smallest and free components of matter, the quark-gluon plasma, transformed into today\u2019s building blocks of matter, the protons and neutrons\u201d. This can be simulated in energy-intensive particle accelerators by accelerating atomic nuclei made of lead or gold to almost the speed of light, so that when they collide with each other, temperatures and densities are created that existed shortly after the Big Bang. Elfner describes these processes in mathematical models: She calculates the temporal development of the microscopic heavy ion collisions and compares various assumptions for the properties of matter with experimental data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, 16 scientists in her group are conducting research in seven national and international collaborations. In our cluster, for example, they are trying to understand how the properties of matter at high densities can be determined from heavy ion collisions in order to elucidate the astrophysical processes involved in the fusion of neutron stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regular activities and excursions keep the team together. Elfner is very committed to young scientists; despite her young age, she has already successfully guided almost 40 young scientists to their scientific degrees. In addition to educating students and doctoral candidates, she regularly gives the public an insight into her research in lectures and at events \u2013 in the process, she demonstrates how successful women can be in physics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elfner has been awarded several prestigious prizes for her scientific achievements, being nominated as \u201cScientist of the Year\u201d by the Alfons and Gertrud Kassel Foundation recently and awarded with the Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FIAS has now underlined her exceptional performance and high level of commitment by appointing her a Senior Fellow. The Stiftungsrat (Board of Trustees) unanimously appointed her to the ranks of the FIAS Faculty. \u201cI am delighted about the appointment,\u201d says the Frankfurt native \u2013 \u201cand that I can continue to contribute to FIAS and its shaping\u201d. FIAS Director Elsen adds: \u201cWith this appointment, the theoretical description of the interaction of nuclear matter will continue to be competently and prominently represented at FIAS in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exploration of the world in miniature will not let go of Hannah Elfner in the future: \u201cA better understanding of the transition from protons\/neutrons to the quark-gluon plasma at high densities would be great\u201d.<\/p>", "protected": false }, "excerpt": { "rendered": "
ELEMENTS Principal Investigator Hannah Elfner was recently appointed as Senior Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) \u2013 just in time for her 40th birthday. She is the first woman to make it into this highest category at the theoretical research institute \u2013 comparable to a W3 professorship at the university. \u201cWe appoint […]<\/p>", "protected": false }, "author": 11, "featured_media": 11745, "comment_status": "closed", "ping_status": "open", "sticky": false, "template": "", "format": "standard", "meta": { "footnotes": "" }, "categories": [ 36 ], "tags": [ 19 ], "post_folder": [ 48 ], "class_list": [ "post-1830", "post", "type-post", "status-publish", "format-standard", "has-post-thumbnail", "hentry", "category-news", "tag-awards" ], "yoast_head": "\n