Birth Name: | Bianca Dittrich |
Birth Place: | Germany |
Field: | Quantum gravity |
Work Institutions: | Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics |
Alma Mater: | Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics |
Doctoral Advisor: | Thomas Thiemann |
Thesis Title: | Aspects of Classical and Quantum Dynamics of Canonical General Relativity[1] |
Thesis Year: | 2005 |
Known For: | Loop quantum gravity, Spin foam models of Quantum gravity |
Bianca Dittrich (born 1977) is a German theoretical physicist known for her contributions to loop quantum gravity and the spin foam approach to quantum gravity. She has been a faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada since 2012. She is also currently an adjunct professor at the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo.
Dittrich received her PhD in 2005 from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, under the supervision of Thomas Thiemann. She then worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Perimeter Institute until 2008, as a Marie Curie Fellow at Utrecht University until 2009 and as the Max Planck Research Group Leader at Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics until 2012. In 2012, she was appointed to the research faculty at the Perimeter Institute.[2]
Dittrich has made important contributions to loop quantum gravity, spin foam models and cosmological aspects of quantum gravity. She is currently focusing on investigating the large scale behavior of spin foam models.
In 2007 she was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal for young scientists from the Max Planck Society. In 2008-2009 she received the Marie Curie Research Fellowship. In 2014 she was awarded the Ontario Early Researcher Award.