Bettina Heim
Events
Bettina Heim
OHB System AG
About the Speaker
Bettina Heim studied Physics at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany and at Lund University, Sweden until 2009. During her dissertation, she worked as a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen with Prof. Dr. Gerd Leuchs on the implementation of various free space quantum communication protocols. She received her Ph.D. in physics from FAU in 2015, within the graduate program by the School of Advanced Optical Technologies. She was a visiting researcher in Prof. Thomas Jennewein’s group at the IQC in Waterloo, ON, Canada in 2010 and 2011.
From 2015 to 2016 she was the Scientific Coordinator at MPL. She also coordinated MPL’s activities in the International Year of Light in 2015. In 2016 she continued her career in space industry and since then has been working with OHB system, one of the three large European Space Companies. In her current role as head of the quantum communication networks department, she is responsible for a variety of projects and proposals in quantum technologies, including OHB’s contribution to the ESA mission SAGA, developing the space segment of the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure.
Bettina has been an active member of Optica since many years, e.g. as president of the Student Chapter in Erlangen, local organizer of the Siegman International School on Lasers 2015, member of the CLEO program committee member for A&T 5 (quantum technologies) and most recently as appointed chair of the quantum division in the Board of Meetings since 2025. She has also been elected in 2016 as a member of the first class of Optica ambassadors.
