Cynthia Ann Volkert (born 1960) is a nanoscientist whose research focuses on the properties of

nanoporous materials Nanoporous materials consist of a regular organic or inorganic bulk phase in which a porous structure is present. Nanoporous materials exhibit pore diameters that are most appropriately quantified using units of nanometers. The diameter of pores ...

, particularly metals including gold, other nano-scale metals, and their machining and fabrication using

focused ion beam Focused ion beam, also known as FIB, is a technique used particularly in the semiconductor industry, materials science and increasingly in the biological field for site-specific analysis, deposition, and ablation of materials. A FIB setup is a s ...

vapor deposition Vacuum deposition is a group of processes used to deposit layers of material atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule on a solid surface. These processes operate at pressures well below atmospheric pressure (i.e., vacuum). The deposited layers can r ...

, and dealloying. Born in the US, and educated in Canada and the US, she works in Germany as professor and director of the Institute for Materials Physics of the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. She is a former president of the and of the

Materials Research Society The Materials Research Society (MRS) is a non-profit, professional organization for materials researchers, scientists and engineers. Established in 1973, MRS is a member-driven organization of approximately 14,000 materials researchers from academi ...

Education and career

Volkert was born in 1960, in

Williamsport, Pennsylvania Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It recorded a population of 27,754 at the 2020 Census. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a popula ...

. She studied physics at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

in Canada, graduating in 1982, and then went to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in the US for graduate study in physics. She earned a master's degree there in 1984, and completed her Ph.D. in 1987. Her dissertation, ''Flow and Relaxation of Amorphous Metals'', was supervised by Frans Spaepen. From 1988 until 1998 she worked in the US for

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

. In 1999 she moved to the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

(later part of the

Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Founded on 18 March 2011, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) is one of the 86 research institutes of the Max Planck Society. With locations in Stuttgart and Tübingen, it combines interdisciplinary research in the growing ...

), where she worked until 2002. Next, she became a researcher at Karlsruhe Research Center (now part of the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 w ...

), from 2003 to 2007. She took her current position as professor at the Institute for Materials Physics of the

in 2007. In 2008, Volkert became president of the . In the same year she also became president of the

Recognition

Volkert was elected to the

German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

in 2011.

References

External links

Institute for Material Physics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Volkert, Cynthia 1960 births Living people People from Williamsport, Pennsylvania American physicists American women physicists German physicists German women physicists German nanotechnologists McGill University alumni Harvard University alumni Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina