Claudia Felser


Claudia Felser is a German solid state chemist and materials scientist. She is currently a director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids. Felser was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering 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, Germany in 1962.
Felser studied chemistry and physics at the University of Cologne, completing her diploma in solid state chemistry and her doctorate in physical chemistry. After postdoctoral fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany with Arndt Simon and Ole Krogh Andersen, she moved to the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Nantes, France, where she worked in the group of Jean Rouxel. Afterwards, she joined the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in 1996 as an assistant professor. She resided there in 2002 and was appointed to a full professor in 2003.
In 1999, she was a visiting professor at Princeton University and, in 2000, at the University of Caen. From 2009 to 2010 she was a visiting professor at Stanford University and in 2019 visiting professor at Harvard University in the department of Physics/ Applied Physics.
Since September 2011 she is a director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids and Professor hon. at the TU Dresden. Since June 2023, Felser has been Vice President of the Max Planck Society.

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. 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, new fermions, and new quasiparticles.

Awards and honors

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.