Andrea Cavalleri, born in 1969, is a founding director of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg. He holds a laurea degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pavia (Italy) and held positions at the University of Essen (Germany), the University of California, San Diego and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA). In 2006, he became Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. He joined the Max Planck Society in 2008.

Professor Cavalleri is best known for his use of electromagnetic radiation to induce and study non-equilibrium phenomena in quantum solids. He has demonstrated that non-equilibrium superconductivity can be induced far above the thermodynamic transition temperature. He has been honored with the 2005 European Young Investigator Award (European Science Foundation), the 2015 Max Born Medal and Prize (German Physical Society, DPG and Institute of Physics, IOP), the 2015 Dannie Heineman Prize (Göttingen Academy of Science and Humanities) and the 2018 Isakson Prize (American Physical Society). Professor Cavalleri is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the AAAS and the British Institute of Physics (IOP) as well as an elected member of the Academia Europaea.