Elke Arenholz’s main research interest lies in the area of magnetism and magnetic materials and her research has contributed to nearly 400 publications.

Dr. Arenholz began her scientific career in Germany where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in condensed matter physics from the University of Regensburg and her doctoral degree from the Freie Universität Berlin. She pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, before embarking on a career at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. At ALS, Dr. Arenholz pioneered the development of unique research instruments and techniques to study magnetic materials with synchrotron radiation.

Following her tenure at ALS, Dr. Arenholz served as the Associate Director of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, where she oversaw the facility’s scientific program and operations starting in 2019 and as the Co-Director of the Interconnected Science Ecosystem (INTERSECT) initiative at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2021-2022).

Currently, Dr. Arenholz is the director of the Physical Sciences Division (PSD) at PNNL.