At her institute, Prof. Lotte Geck was the first to work on quantum computers. The electrical engineer motivates women students to pursue a career in science at "Jugend forscht" and similar events.
"Are you sure?" This is the question Lotte Geck was asked when she chose maths and physics as her A-level subjects. And also when she enrolled for an electrical engineering degree at RWTH Aachen University in 2009. "Unfortunately, a prejudice persists that such STEM subjects are not for women," she says. But Geck developed a love of technology at an early age: her father, an electrical engineer himself, often took her to the lab when she was a child. "We would sometimes take a computer apart together," explains the researcher from Hanover. "I always wanted to understand everything, like how can you talk to someone on the other side of the world by telephone."
Shaping the future
Years later, Geck impressively dispelled old prejudices with her rapid career ascent: she was just 31 upon taking up her junior professorship in 2022. As early as 2016, the current team leader became a pioneer at the now named Peter Grünberg Institut PGI-4: Integrated Computer Architectures with her doctorate: "At the time, I was the first person here to work on quantum computing." Since then, around 20 other colleagues now work on these completely new types of computer systems at PGI-4. "I want to help advance the vision of the quantum computer. This is where you can really help to shape the future," enthuses Geck. The biggest challenge is to turn the huge lab machines with a handful of qubits into devices suitable for everyday use with at least a million qubits. "The best way to figure out how this is possible is to use models. That's what I've been doing to this day," she says enthusiastically. "The great thing is that with every question that's solved, new ones come up!"
A role model for girls
It doesn't take much imagination to picture how Geck gets teenagers enthusiastic about STEM on the federal jury of the "Jugend forscht" competition or during Girls and Boys Day at Forschungszentrum Jülich. "It helps girls in particular if I show up and answer their questions," says the 33-year-old, describing her role model function. "Because they can see that it works - despite all the prejudices, and with a family too." Indeed, Geck also manages to reconcile her research with her family life: "My one-year-old son and my husband recently accompanied me to a conference in Berlin." And what has helped her to keep progressing, besides her irrepressible thirst for research? "A great deal of persistence," she says with a laugh. A good thing for Jülich!
Text: Claudia Christine Wolf for the FZJ staff magazine "inside".
