Since 2008, the Lise Meitner Lectures have honoured the achievements of physicist Lise Meitner (1878–1968). In this annual series, leading women physicists from around the world present their research to a wide audience – with the aim of raising the visibility of successful female researchers and, in particular, inspiring young women to take up physics. An invitation to give a Lise Meitner Lecture is regarded as a special distinction. Previous speakers have included, among others, Nobel laureates Donna Strickland and Anne L’Huillier.
This year’s Lise Meitner Lecture will be given by Professor Michèle Heurs on 18 March 2026 as part of the annual meeting of the German Physical Society in Erlangen. In her talk, “Gravitational-wave astronomy – quo vadis?”, she will take the audience on a journey into space.
Since the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015, a new observational window on the universe has opened. Heurs will introduce the physics of interferometric gravitational-wave detection, explain the technological limits of current measurements, and outline ways to overcome them.
Michèle Heurs is a Professor at the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) and one of the spokespersons of the Cluster of Excellence QuantumFrontiers. She is also a founding member of the German Centre for Astrophysics and a senior scientist at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY). Through her research, she is driving the development of high-frequency non-classical light sources and state-of-the-art photodetection to reduce quantum noise in next-generation gravitational-wave detectors.
Further information about the event can be found on the German Physical Society’s website
