Christine Silberhorn (born 19 April 1974) is a German physicist specialising in quantum optics and a full professor at the Paderborn University.
[1] Born in Nürnberg, Germany, Silberhorn studied mathematics and physics at Erlangen University (1993–1999) and completed her Ph.D. in 2003, with a dissertation in quantum information science.
[2] In 2005 she joined the Max Planck Research Group "Optics, Information and Photonics" (now the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light) as the head of the junior research group "integrated quantum optics".
Upon foundation of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light Erlangen, she headed the Integrated Quantum Optics Group until 2010, completing her habilitation in 2008.
[7][8] Silberhorn's research on the quantum properties of light and the development of quantum devices has received worldwide recognition and numerous awards, including the Herta Sponer Prize[9] of the German Physical Society and the Medal of the Werner von Siemens Ring Foundation in 2007,[10] the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis in 2008 and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Prize in 2011.