Susanne Albers

2008 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winner

Prof. Dr. Susanne Albers has made a significant impact on computer science, and in particular research into efficient algorithms, over the last 15 years. She is one of the leading researchers in this field worldwide and is considered the premier expert in the field in Germany. Albers’ research has led to a significant optimization of online and approximation algorithms, which, in contrast to conventional algorithms, do not have all of the required data when the calculation begins but are continually updated as the calculation progresses, with an approximation generated after each new input.

The methods she has developed have made a fundamental contribution to basic research in the field, yet at the same time her results are also highly relevant to real-life applications. This is also demonstrated by her current work on energy efficiency algorithms, which are very important for laptops and mobile phones, for example.

After studying mathematics, computer science, and economics in her home town of Osnabrück, Susanne Albers obtained her doctorate from Saarland University in 1993, where she was part of the DFG’s very first research training group, on Computer Science. She then worked at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics until 1999, and made several research visits to the USA, Japan, and elsewhere in Europe. She was just 33 when she earned her habilitation in 1999 and was immediately offered three professorial appointments, accepting the one in Dortmund. Since 2001 she has held the Chair for Information and Coding Theory at the University of Freiburg.