Adriana Pálffy-Buß has opened up novel applications in X-ray quantum optics in a series of pioneering theoretical works. In 2019, she received the Röntgen Prize of Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen and the Hertha Sponer Prize of the German Physical Society for her experimentally confirmed predictions on achieving an enhanced interaction between X-rays and atomic nuclei, the so-called “strong coupling”.
After studying physics at the University of Bucharest, Adriana Pálffy-Buß completed her doctorate at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen in 2006. She then moved to the MPI for Nuclear Physics in the division of Christoph Keitel, where she – interrupted by short stays at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow – headed the "Nuclear and Atomic Quantum Dynamics" group since 2011. In 2014, she habilitated at Heidelberg University. In 2020, she was accepted into DFG's Heisenberg Programme and moved to Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg on 1 October 2020, but kept a small group and a guest status at MPIK.
