Doreen Ware

Doreen Ware is Professor at Leibniz Universität Hannover and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, where she leads the Laser Interferometry and Gravitational Wave Astronomy department. She holds a PhD in Plant Biology from Ohio State University and serves as President of the Department of Mathematics at Universität Hannover.

Her research combines computational analysis and experimental verification to study genome sequence evolution in staple crops. Her work has contributed to projects including the maize haplotype map reference genome and the National Science Foundation-funded Gramene project for comparative genomics of agriculturally important crops.

Recent publications focus on multi-omics approaches to understand plant stress responses, development of genomic resources for rice, and evolutionary signatures in maize domestication. Her research consistently addresses fundamental questions in gene conservation, duplication patterns, and structural variation impacts.

• Stern-Gerlach Medal (Highest German Physics Society award)
• Otto Hahn Prize for gravitational wave detector development
• Körber European Science Prize for enabling gravitational wave detection
• Edison Volta Prize for interferometer systems development

She currently leads development of the LISA space gravitational wave detector and contributes to the Einstein Telescope project. Her team operates the GEO600 detector as a technology development center for advanced interferometry techniques.