Sabine Ludwigs

Sabine Ludwigs (born 1978) is a German chemist who is a professor at the University of Stuttgart. Her research considers conductive molecular materials for technologies including photovoltaics and actuators. She investigates the functional properties (optical, electronic, electrochemical) of conductive polymers.

Early life and education
Ludwigs was born in Cologne. She was an undergraduate student at the University of Bayreuth, where she remained for her doctoral research in physical chemistry. Her research involved investigations into the complex nanostructures that form in triblock terpolymer thin films. She moved to the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher, where she spent two years.

Research and career
In 2006, Ludwigs established her own research group at the Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry at the University of Freiburg. She was a Junior Fellow and awarded an Emmy Noether Fellowship. She spent four years in the Freiburg Material Research Center before moving to the University of Stuttgart as Professor of Structure and Properties of Polymeric Materials.

Ludwigs' research considers semiconducting molecular materials for next-generation technologies, including photovoltaics and soft robotics. She investigates how molecular design impacts the functional properties of materials and structure-function relationships (e.g. how structure and morphology impacts optical and electronic properties). Alongside electrons, molecular materials can enable ionic transport, which makes them valuable materials for bioelectronics, personalised therapeutics and wearable medical devices.