Dr. Heidrun Schmitzer
Professor, Physics and Engineering Department
Dr. Heidrun Schmitzer received her Doctoral degree from the University in Regensburg in optics and solid state physics under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Dultz. She worked on research projects on fiber and polarization optics for the German Telekom in Frankfurt and also taught two years at the Montessori-School in Regensburg. She was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Chemnitz from 2000 to 2001 and joined the physics faculty at Xavier in 2002.
Dr. Schmitzer's interests are optics, especially nonlinear optics, polarization optics and quantum optics. Besides her publications she holds 19 patents in this field. Her research is in optics and plasmonics. She also likes hands-on physics experiments and physics toys. She enjoys presenting from time to time some physics experiments in German at German Fairview School as a volunteer. In her free time she drags her husband and two sons along to sites which have been important for the history of science. Reading and sport in small doses round out her recreational activities.
A list of Dr. Schmitzer's publications.
Degrees
- Dr. rer. nat., University of Regensburg
Awards, Honors, Certifications
- Women of Excellence Grant for creating a Xavier pilot program to support career specialization and persistence of female students in disciplines with prevalent underrepresentation of women, 2016.
- $10 000 technology grant for development of labs using a high speed camera, 2015
- Women of Excellence Grant for the new core course Women who Shaped Modern Physics, 2009
- Grant from the Research Corporation for the Advancement of Science RCAS for Micromanipulation and Microtools: Investigating self-regulating optically active elements and naturally grown, optically driven Rotors, 2008
- Grant from the Research Corporation for the Advancement of Science RCAS for Investigation of the feasibility of self-adjusting optical elements on the basis of angular momentum transfer at the end of an optical fiber, 2005
- Wheeler Award for the Development of the new core course Forensic Science Studies, 2005
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Grant from the State of Saxony, Germany, 2000