Ulrike Diebold

Ulrike Diebold was born on 12 December 1961 in Kapfenberg, Austria. She studied physics at the TU Vienna where she received her diploma in 1986. She continued to obtain her doctorate (Dr. techn.) under Prof. Peter Varga in 1990. She completed her habilitation in Experimental Physics in 1998 at the TU Wien.

She was a post-doctoral research associate at Rutgers University between 1990 and 1993.

Ulrike Diebold is well known for her influential work in the fields of surface science, materials and physical chemistry, and condensed matter physics. In particular, she has contributed greatly to the understanding of atomic-scale surface structure and electronic surface structure of metal oxides.

After completing her doctorate in Vienna she moved to the Department of Physics at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. There she was Adjunct Professor of Chemistry (1993-2009), Assistant Professor (1993-1999), Associate Professor (1999-2001), and Professor of Physics (2001-2009). She held the Yahoo! Founder Chair in Science and Engineering from 2006 to 2009. She was also Associate Department Chair from 2002 to 2009. Since 2010 she's been holding the title of Research Professor at Tulane.[1]

In 2010 she moved to the Institute of Applied Physics at TU Wien where she is Professor of Surface Science and Deputy Department Head.[2]

Ulrike Diebold has served in a number of editorial roles and on a number of advisory boards for scientific journals.

In 2015 she was awarded the Blaise Pascal medal in Materials Sciences by the European Academy of Sciences for "Surfaces of Metal Oxides, Studied at the Atomic Scale".[9] She held the 2015 Debye Lecture entitled "Surface Science Studies of an Iron Oxide Model Catalyst" at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.[10] Also in 2015, on 24 November, she gave the 21st Annual Schrödinger Lecture at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, with the title "An Atomic-Scale View at Oxide Surfaces".[11] On 11 June 2015 she gave the R. Brdička memorial lecture at the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Prague, entitled "Surface Science of Metal Oxides".[12]

She was awarded the Wittgenstein Award in 2013.[13]

Ulrike Diebold was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council in 2011 for work on "Microscopic Processes and Phenomena at Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces".

Ulrike Diebold was elected a member of the Leopoldina, the national academy of sciences in Germany, in 2015.[14][15] She was elected member of the European Academiy of Sciences in 2014.[16] In 2014, she also became an Elected Full Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.[17]

Ulrike Diebold holds dual citizenship of both Austria and the USA. She is married to Gerhard Piringer with whom she has two sons, Thomas (born 1996) and Niklas (born 1999).