Durrer was made an assistant professor at the
University of Zürich in 1992, and full professor at the
University of Geneva in 1995. She is a member of the
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. She works on the
cosmic microwave background and
massive gravity.
Massive gravity describes an expanding universe with massive
gravitons, which weakens gravity on large scales. Durrer uses
cosmological observations as a test for
general relativity. Durrer has contributed extensively to the theoretical understanding of
topological defects. She showed that cosmic textures can suppress the
acoustic peaks of the angular
power spectrum of the
cosmic microwave background. This results confirm that cosmic textures are not responsible for the distribution of matter in the observed universe. She worked with
Neil Turok to demonstrate it is possible to use terrestrial lab-based experiments to test
cosmological phase transitions in the early universe. These include using
liquid crystals to study the scaling solutions of string networks. She showed that the scaling properties of these primordial
magnetic fields can be determined by
causality arguments alone. Durrer studied an extended area of space, separating it into 60 billion zones and using the
c++ library LATfield2 with a
supercomputer to study the movement of individual particles. She used
Einstein's equations to calculate the distance in
metric space, comparing this with the prediction of
Newton's methods. Durrer was elected to Academia Net by the
Swiss National Science Foundation in 2012. She is a member of the committee of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. She has held visiting academic positions at
University of California, Berkeley,
Princeton University,
University of Paris-Sud and
Galileo Galilei Institute.
Awards and honours Her awards and honours include; • 1992
Swiss Academy of Sciences Schaefli Award
Personal life Durrer is married with three children. She speaks German, English, French, and Swiss German. == References ==