Over coffee, tea and cake, pupils and students (fellows) were able to discuss physics and career issues with her. In a very inspiring and impressive way, Lena Funcke presented her own career path and talked about her first contacts with physics up to her junior professorship at the University of Bonn.
After studying physics at the University of Münster and the University of Cambridge (UK), Lena Funcke completed her doctorate at the age of 23 at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and the LMU Munich. Her dissertation was awarded the Arnold Sommerfeld Doctoral Prize of the LMU and the Dieter Rampacher Prize of the Max Planck Society. Before joining the University of Bonn as a junior professor, Lena Funcke worked for four years as a postdoc, first at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo (Canada) and then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge (USA).
Together with her interdisciplinary team, she develops new models beyond the standard model and investigates their phenomenological effects. She is also working on the further development of new computational methods for investigating strongly coupled quantum field theories based on lattice field theory, tensor networks, deep learning and quantum computers.
The presentation of what a career in science could look like quickly led to a lively discussion, during which Prof. Lena Funcke answered many interesting questions from the participants. Time flew by and the evening could have gone on for a long time. We would like to thank Prof. Lena Funcke and all those interested in another very successful Particle Café.
The next particle café will take place in September. Follow the news of Netwerk Teilchenwelt Bonn to join future events.