Astrid Lambrecht

Astrid Lambrecht (born 1967) has been a member of the Management Board since June 1, 2021.

Previously, she had been Director of Research at the CNRS since 2007 – an academic title equivalent to the German professor. From 2014 to 2015 she was deputy director of the LKB, from 2016 deputy scientific director at the CNRS headquarters for the scientific business area physics, which she headed since 2018.

Born in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Prof. Astrid Lambrecht first studied physics at the University of Essen and at Imperial College in London. In 1995 she received her doctorate at the research institute Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB) in Paris on the topic "Cold Atoms and Quantum Fluctuations". After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, she moved to the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) for Physics in Paris in 1996. In 2002, Lambrecht habilitated at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.

Lambrecht's research focused primarily on quantum fluctuations and the forces they stimulated. Lambrecht paid particular attention to the microphysical Casimir effect, which, to put it simply, causes two parallel metal plates to attract each other in a vacuum. This effect is interesting, for example, for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) - miniature plates that are used in smartphones, airbags and inkjet printers. Lambrecht also researched related phenomena in areas such as atomic physics and nanophysics - and examined the role played by the power of the Casimir effect in physical issues in areas such as biology and chemistry. Lambrecht's internationally influential research ranges from basic research to application.

Lambrecht also brings a lot of experience from numerous international scientific organizations and committees to Jülich. She was or is active in funding organizations such as the French "Agence Nationale de la Recherche" (ANR), the US "National Science Foundation" (NSF), the British "Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council" (EPSRC) and the Austrian “Wissenschaftsfonds” (FWF). She has also contributed her expertise to the German Physical Society, the US Department of Energy, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and the French Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Assessment (OPECST). From 2007 to 2014, Lambrecht was also co-editor of the scientific journal EPL in the field of physics.

Lambrecht's most important awards include the 2005 Aimé Cotton Prize from the French Physical Society, the 2013 CNRS Silver Medal and the 2016 Gentner-Kastler Prize from the French and German Physical Society. In 2019 she was also awarded the French Order of Merit of the Legion of Honour.