Ursula Keller is a tenured professor of physics at ETH Zurich, where she has led research in ultrafast science since 1993. She earned her Diplom from ETH Zurich in 1984 and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1989. From 2010 to 2022, she directed the NCCR MUST program in ultrafast science. Her independent research career began at AT&T Bell Labs as a Member of Technical Staff. She co-founded Time-Bandwidth Products (acquired by JDSU in 2014) and K2 Photonics in 2023, and has served on the supervisory board of Jenoptik since 2022.
Keller's research focuses on ultrafast lasers, including SESAM-modelocked solid-state and semiconductor lasers, dual-comb sources, and few-cycle pulse generation for frequency metrology and attosecond science. She pioneered the attoclock technique to study quantum tunneling.
Her awards include the Swiss Science Prize Marcel Benoist (2022), OSA/OPTICA Ives Medal (2020), SPIE Gold Medal (2020), IEEE Edison Medal (2019), and two ERC Advanced Grants. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and has supervised 98 Ph.D. students. Her graduate textbook ‘Ultrafast Lasers’ was published in 2022.
Professional position
- Professor, Head of Research, Physics and Electrical Engineering Department, ETH Zurich
