Mildred Dresselhaus Guest Professorship: call for nominations and applications

In recognition of Mildred Dresselhaus’ achievements in science and equal opportunities, the “Mildred Dresselhaus Guest Professorship” is awarded by the Cluster of Excellence “CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter” since 2012 to honor and promote outstanding female scientists and to intensify and establish new international research collaborations. We now invite for nominations and (self-) applications for the Mildred Dresselhaus Professorship 2026.

The Cluster of Excellence “CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments combines projects in physics and chemistry at the forefront of international research. With interdisciplinary teams from the University of Hamburg, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD), Deutsches Elektronen‑Synchrotron (DESY) and European XFEL the Cluster aims at imaging and understanding how collective behavior and functionality emerge microscopically and how new functionalities can be created. The cluster’s research program includes projects on: Quantum physics and optics – condensed matter physics – ultrafast science and imaging – X‑ray science – nano science – bioimaging.

Program content

• provision of excellent research conditions for international outstanding female researchers: annually, the guest professorship is awarded to a successful senior scientist (senior award with personal prize money of Euro 20 000), as well as to a younger researcher with high potential (junior award with a personal prize money of Euro 10 000)
• invitation to work within CUI for an extended period of up to six months
• providing role models for young women in the physical sciences
• teaching and mentoring opportunities
• attracting world leading researchers to Hamburg, starting new and intensifying existing collaborations

Please feel invited to forward the information to your international collaborators or submit your nomination of a suitable candidate.

Please send the required documents (see list below) to as one single pdf file until 29th of April 2026. Any questions regarding the program can also be addressed to Eileen Schwanold.

The nomination or application should contain the following

• name of a potential scientific host at CUI (named in motivation letter)
• letter of support from said scientific host (1 page text)
• letter of motivation including research interests for a collaboration with CUI (up to 2 pages)
• scientific CV including the five most important publications + list of invited talks & teaching experience (not more than 3,5 pages)
• a short equal opportunity/diversity statement (0,5 pages)

Please base your CV on the format proposed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) which can be found here.

The previous Mildred Dresselhaus Guest Professors

• Prof. Dr. Teresa Pellegrino, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Genoa, Italy (2025)
• Dr. Zala Lenarčič, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2025)
• Prof. Dr. Sonia Coriani, Technical University of Denmark (2024)
• Dr. Laura Cattaneo, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics Heidelberg, Germany (2024)
• Prof. Dr. Lin X. Chen, Argonne National Laboratory & Northwestern University, USA (2023)
• Dr. Liuyan Zhao, University of Michigan, USA (2023)
• Prof. Dr. Olga Smirnova, Max-Born-Institut, Germany (2022)
• Dr. Benedetta Flebus, Boston College, USA (2022)
• Prof. Dr. Jie Shan, Cornell University, USA (2021)
• Prof. Dr. Prineha Narang, Harvard University, USA (2021)
• Dr. Caterina Vozzi, Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology, Italy (2020)
• Dr. Giulia Fulvia Mancini, University of Pavia, Italy (2020)
• Prof. Dr. Ruth Signorell, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2018)
• Prof. Dr. Alicia Palacios, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain (2018)
• Prof. Dr. Anna Krylov, University of Southern California, USA (2017)
• Prof. Dr. Tanya Zelevinsky, Columbia University, New York, USA (2017)
• Prof. Dr. Cristiane Morais Smith, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands (2016)
• Dr. Friederike Ernst, Stanford University, USA (2016)
• Prof. Dr. Elspeth Garman, University of Oxford, UK (2015)
• Dr. Liesbeth Janssen, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Germany (2015)
• Prof. Dr. Roseanne Sension, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA (2014)
• Dr. Anouk Rijs, Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (2014)
• Prof. Dr. Tamar Seideman, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA (2013)
• Dr. Rosario González-Férez, Universidad de Granada, Spain (2013)