Prof Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem is Deputy Director of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) and Director of the Optofab Adelaide Hub at the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). She is Senior Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP). In 2017 she became a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, an honour awarded by peers for having “made significant contributions to the advancement of Optics”.

Heike obtained her PhD in chemistry from the University of Jena, Germany in 1994 and subsequently held two prestigious fellowships. From 2001-2004 she was with the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, UK. Heike came to the University of Adelaide in 2005. She was awarded the Woldemar A. Weyl International Glass Science Award in 2001, the International Zwick Science Award in 2009, the University of Adelaide Women’s Research Excellence Mid-Career Award in 2015, and the Winnovation SA Technology Award from the SA Women in Innovation and Technology in 2017.

Heike has published over 370 refereed journal papers and conference proceedings, including 5 review papers and 9 post deadline papers, and raised over $32.8M in research funding. Heike’s research focuses on the development of novel optical glasses, fibers, surface functionalization and sensing approaches.