Elina Fuchs

Theoretical particle physics with quantum sensors and colliders

Elina Fuchs is Lead Scientist at DESY and Professor of Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Hannover. Her research focuses on extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics and their phenomenology at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN as well as at future accelerators and at the interface to atomic physics. In doing so, she connects two different areas of theoretical elementary particle physics: accelerator-based high-energy physics on the one hand, and complementary high-precision physics using highly sensitive quantum sensors on the other. Specifically, she investigates the properties of the Higgs boson, candidates for dark matter and the baryon asymmetry of the universe, and she searches for new particles using various approaches – from large accelerators to small, precise atomic-physics experiments. To this end, she develops innovative methods to test theoretical predictions against experimental data and propose new, sensitive measurements.

As part of the Cluster of Excellence QuantumFrontiers, she heads a fundamental-research group that focuses on testing dark matter and changing fundamental constants using high-precision spectroscopy of atoms, ions and atomic nuclei. Within the international quantum sensor collaboration DRD5, she leads Work Package 1 on BSM sensors made of atoms, molecules, nuclei, and nanoparticles. From 2022 to 2023, she coordinated the theory branch of the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative. She has received numerous fellowships and awards for her research, including the 2023 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

 

Academic career

since 2025 Lead Scientist at DESY and Professor at the University of Hannover
2021-2025  Junior Professor, University of Hannover and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
2021-2023  Senior Research Fellow, CERN
2019-2021 Feodor Lynen Fellow, Fermilab and University of Chicago, USA
2015-2019 Minerva Fellow, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
2015 PhD (Dr. rer. nat.), University of Hamburg
2012-2015 Doctoral student at DESY
2012 MSc in Physics, University of Göttingen
2010-2012 Master thesis at DESY
2009-2010  Erasmus student, University of Helsinki, Finland
2006-2012 Physics studies, University of Göttingen

 

Memberships

since 2021 Member of the Science Board and Leader of the Topical Group Tests of Fundamental Physics: Spectroscopy” of the Cluster of Excellence QuantumFrontiers