Cristiane Morais Smith

Cristiane de Morais Smith Lehner is a Brazilian theoretical physicist and professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Utrecht, where she leads a research group studying condensed matter physics, cold atoms and strongly-correlated systems. In 2019, the European Physical Society awarded Morais Smith its Emmy Noether Distinction. As of March 2020, her work has received over 2900 citations.

In addition, Morais Smith is an editor for the European Journal of Physics B, which focuses on condensed matter and complex systems.

Education Morais Smith obtained a physics BSc from University of Campinas in 1985, continuing to complete a MSc with highest honors in 1989 entitled The Effect of the Initial Preparation to Describe the Dynamics of a Quantum Brownian Particle, under her adviser Amir Caldeira. She continued with Caldeira to complete a PhD in 1994, also at University of Campinas entitled Quantum and Classical Creep of Vortices Intrinsically Pinned in High-Temperature Superconductors. Much of the work for her PhD was completed at ETH Zurich where she worked with Gianni Blatter.

Career Starting in March 1986, Morais Smith was a French language teacher at Brazilian Telecommunications Company (TELEBRAS), in Campinas Brazil, until, in December 1988 Morais Smith briefly became the owner of and teacher at a French language school. After finishing a post-doc in Hamburg, Morais Smith began working at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where the Swiss National Science Foundation awarded her the Professor Boursier Fellowship. At the University of Fribourg, she advanced to an associate professor position. She is chair of the Condensed Matter Physics department there.

Morais Smith is one of three directors of the Delta Institute for Theoretical Physics (a collaboration between University of Amsterdam, Leiden University, and Utrecht University), where she represents Utrecht University.

Morais Smith is fluent in Portuguese (her native language), English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch. which is a variation on the Meissner effect.

Honors and awards

In 2001, Morais Smith was awarded a "Professeur Boursier du Fond National Suisse" or Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship for a project entitled Spontaneous formation of charge patterns in two-dimensional strongly interacting electron systems.

This prize is awarded to only 2 or 3 researchers per year, and holds a monetary award of more than one million Swiss Francs.

In 2019, the European Physical Society awarded Morais Smith its EPS Emmy Noether Distinction "for her outstanding contributions to the theory of condensed matter systems and ultracold atoms to unveil novel quantum states of matter." The EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics, established in 2013, is awarded "to enhance the recognition of noteworthy women physicists with a strong connection to Europe through nationality or work," particularly those who are "role models that will help to attract women to a career in physics."