10 January 2025
Silke Stähler-Schöpf featured as “Female Physicist of the Week”
For more than ten years, Silke Stähler-Schöpf has successfully led the PhotonLab, a student laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics. Since 2019, MCQST has actively supported the lab and its efforts to inspire fascination for quantum physics among students and teachers alike.
Silke and her team give school classes a first insight into laser, light, and quantum phenomena. The focus is on experiments that the school students th can perform themselves. Besides that, she contributes to many activities for public outreach like at various fairs, open house day, competitions (GYPT), GirlsDay, Maustag, quantum Tuesday, quantum Friday. Silke also and co-founded MUC-Labs, the organization of student labs in the Munich area. Another highlight is the podcast "Alice im Quantenland" (find it on every podcast app) for children from 6 years old, where Alice experiences bizarre adventures alongside Schrödinger, the cat.
Silke obtained her PhD in solid-state physics at TU München. After a family break, she gave guided tours at the Deutsches Museum for school classes before she started to set up the "PhotonLab". She will be awarded the DPG Georg Kerschensteiner Preis in 2025.
About the "Physikerin der Woche" Initiative
Since January 2018, the Equal Opportunities Working Group of the DPG has been introducing you to a female physicist each week in a short report.
Dr. Ulrike Böhm, curator of this initiative, explains the idea in an DPG article: “We want to show that studying physics and becoming a female scientist is a real opportunity and excellent career choice for all women. That is why, every Monday, our task force for equal opportunities at DPG introduces one female physicist and her field of research in Germany or a female German physicist abroad.”
Further reading: