Ana Achucarro

Research and career Achúcarro joined Imperial College London as a postdoctoral research associate in 1988. Her research there showed that the presence of global symmetries in gauge theory can result in stringlike defects. She moved to the Netherlands in 2002 to join Leiden University.

Achúcarro leads the theoretical cosmology group at the University of Leiden, working on astroparticle physics and quantum field theory. She was a pioneer in the application of string theory to cosmology. In 2011 she participated in Science of the Cosmos, an annual lecture series hosted by the BBVA Foundation. The lectures considered the origins of the universe. She was part of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) public directive on the string theory universe. She also serves on the European Science Foundation's steering committee for Cosmology in the Laboratory.

In 2015, she was awarded a €2.3 million grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). She was appointed to the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics in 2016. Achúcarro leads the Leiden de Sitter cosmology programme, which trains young scientists in the interdisciplinary area of modern cosmology. She serves on the advisory council of the Spanish National Research Council.

Awards and honours She was elected a Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE) in 2011.