Andrea Cavalleri

Andrea Cavalleri is a part-time Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and the Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg, Germany. He holds dual affiliations with the Department of Physics at Oxford and the Max Planck Society. His research focuses on ultrafast optical control of materials, particularly using terahertz and X-ray techniques to induce novel states like superconductivity and ferroelectricity in strongly correlated electron systems.

Education: Cavalleri earned a laurea from the University of Pavia (Italy), followed by research roles at the University of Essen (Germany), UC San Diego (US), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US) before joining Oxford in 2005.

Research Interests: He pioneers methods to manipulate lattice distortions and collective modes in solids via intense terahertz pulses, enabling the creation of metastable states at elevated temperatures. His group also advanced ultrafast X-ray techniques, including contributions to X-ray free-electron lasers. This work bridges condensed matter physics and materials science, with applications in optically induced phase transitions and quantum materials.

Awards & Recognition: Cavalleri has received prestigious honors including the 2018 Frank Isakson Prize, 2015 Max Born Medal, and 2004 European Young Investigator Award. He is a Fellow of the APS, AAAS, and Institute of Physics, and was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2017.

Leadership: As Max Planck Institute director, he oversees interdisciplinary research in matter’s structural and dynamical properties. His ERC Synergy Grant (2015) supported collaborative work on quantum materials.