Ute M. Ebert is a German physicist known for her research on
and
electric discharge in gases Electric discharge in gases occurs when electric current flows through a gaseous medium due to ionization of the gas. Depending on several factors, the discharge may radiate visible light. The properties of electric discharges in gases are studied ...
. She is a researcher in the Netherlands at the
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica
The (abbr. CWI; English: "National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science") is a research centre in the field of mathematics and theoretical computer science. It is part of the institutes organization of the Dutch Research Co ...
, where she heads the research group on multiscale dynamics, and a part-time full professor at the
Eindhoven University of Technology
The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc an ...
, affiliated with the Elementary Processes in Gas Discharges group.
Education and career
Ebert was a physics student at
Heidelberg University
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Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...
from 1980 to 1987, and at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1987 to 1988. She completed a doctorate (
Dr. rer. nat.) in 1994 at the
University of Essen
The University of Duisburg-Essen (german: link=no, Universität Duisburg-Essen) is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded ...
.
After postdoctoral research at
Leiden University, she became a researcher at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in 1998, and added her part-time affiliation with the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in 2002.
Research
file:Upperatmoslight1.jpg, Ebert has contributed a lot to the modelling of lightning discharges. 'Normal' lightning that can be seen from the earth arises under clouds in the troposphere. Discharges that happen at higher altitude are simpler to model and are therefore very useful to better understand lightning., 260x260px Ebert's doctoral dissertation, ''Diffusion langer Polymerketten in einem eingefrorenen Zufallsmedium: eine Renormierungsgruppenanalyse'', concerned the use of renormalization to analyze the diffusion of
polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...
s; she also studied
phytoplankton dynamics before shifting to her present interest in gas discharges. Her research projects on this topic at CWI are more theoretical, while her work at TU/e is experimental and applied.
Long exposure photograph of corona discharge on an insulator string of a 500 kV overhead power line. This type of power loss was the research subject in the project 'Creeping Sparks' Ebert's groups currently work on projects on lightning physics, high voltage technology in the context of electricity nets, and applications of pulsed plasmas in agriculture and combustion engines. She has made important contributions to the modelling of lightning using partial differential equations. She is a specialist in analytical model reductions, numerical multiscale modelling and non-linear dynamics. For example, in her joint work with numerical analysists she managed to mimic lightning discharges to a very detailed level. Laboratorium experiments sustained and confirmed the theoretical research.
Ebert published over 170 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. She was the principal advisor of 15 PhD students, all at the TU/e. Most of them worked on one of the big projects for which Ebert was (one of) the principal investigator(s). Ebert and her students worked on three out of seven STW projects in the programme 'Building on Transient Plasmas' (2009). She and her co-authors developed models describing how lightning starts in thunder clouds, namely by an interaction between sharp-edged hail and cosmic particles. Another important project, financed by STW en ABB Corporate Research, was the 'Creeping sparks project'
in which Ebert and her students developed novel mathematical models and techniques to better understand the fundamental physics of sparks creeping along insulator surfaces.
Recognition
Ebert won the Minerva Prize, a biennial prize for the best Dutch physics publication by a woman, in 2004. She has been a member of the
Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen since 2006.
References
External links
Home page @ CWI*
Ute Ebert on Electric Breakdown in Thunderstorms(video), Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebert, Ute
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
21st-century Dutch physicists
Dutch women physicists
21st-century German physicists
German women physicists
Heidelberg University alumni
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
University of Duisburg-Essen alumni
Eindhoven University of Technology faculty
Members of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen
21st-century Dutch women scientists
21st-century German women scientists