XFEL: Nicole Elleuche to be new Managing and Administrative Director

The European XFEL Council, the highest governing organ of European XFEL, appointed Dr. Nicole Elleuche as European XFEL’s new administrative director. She will take up duty at European XFEL on 1 April 2018. Her responsibilities will include human resources, procurement, finance, and legal affairs.

Elleuche holds a doctorate degree in biology from the University of Bochum and an MBA from the University of Oldenburg. She joins European XFEL from the Heinrich-Pette Institute, Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology (HPI) in Hamburg where she was Member of the Management Board and responsible for administration and technical services for almost five years. In addition, she was also scientific advisor for the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations in Geneva from November 2015 to May 2016. Before taking up duty at HPI she was Vice Head of the division for non-university research at the Hamburg Ministry of Science, Research and Equality. In her new position she succeeds Dr. Claudia Burger, who moved to take up the post of administrative director at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) near Garching in south Germany.

The Chairman of the European XFEL Council Prof. Martin Meedom Nielsen said: “An efficient handling of administrative, legal and financial issues is crucial for the operation of the company European XFEL as a world leading facility for X-ray science. The representatives of the member countries are convinced that Nicole Elleuche is an excellent match for the position, and I am confident that she will continue the excellent work of Claudia Burger in making sure that the administration of the facility is in the best possible shape.”

Prof. Robert Feidenhans’l, Chairman of the European XFEL Management Board, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Nicole Elleuche to our company, who not only has considerable experience in administration direction, but also a detailed knowledge of science. She is an excellent fit for our management team and I am looking forward to working together with her.” 

Nicole Elleuche said: “I am very much looking forward to working in such a strong and international environment and on so many exciting and challenging tasks. I am especially impressed by the dedicated realization of the idea of a worldwide unique research facility, which will be used to produce groundbreaking scientific results. With anticipation and respect I look forward to the work and am already infected by the passion of my future colleagues for European XFEL.”

With Elleuche the European XFEL Management Board is complete again. Alongside Managing Director Prof. Robert Feidenhans’l and Dr. Elleuche as new Administrative Director, the Scientific Directors Prof. Serguei Molodtsov, Dr. Andreas S. Schwarz and Dr. Thomas Tschentscher are also members of the management team.