Pascale Ehrenfreund

Pascale Ehrenfreund

Born	1960 (age 56–57) Vienna, Austria
Nationality	Austrian
Alma mater	University of Vienna Institute of Molecular Biology, Salzburg University of Paris VII Webster Leiden
Occupation	Astrophysicist
Years active	1990-present
Employer	Leiden University University of Amsterdam Radboud University Nijmegen Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA Astrobiology Institute Austrian Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research German Aerospace Center
Known for	Asteroid 9826 Ehrenfreund is named in her honor.
Spouse(s)	Bernard Foing

Pascale Ehrenfreund (born 1960 in Vienna) is an Austrian astrophysicist. Ehrenfreund holds degrees from the University of Vienna (Masters, molecular biology; PhD astrophysics, habilitation, astrochemistry), Webster Leiden (Masters, management and leadership). Prior to becoming a Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at George Washington University, she was a Professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, Leiden University, and University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She was the first woman president of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and in 2015, was elected as CEO for German Aerospace Center, the first woman to lead a major research facility in Germany. The main-belt asteroid 9826 Ehrenfreund is named in her honor.

Pascale Ehrenfreund was born in Vienna, Austria in 1960. She began her university studies at the University of Vienna, where she studied astronomy and biology. She went on to earn a degree at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Salzburg part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1988 in molecular biology and then completed her doctorate in astrophysics at the University of Paris VII and the University of Vienna in 1990. Her post-doctorate studies were conducted at the Leiden Observatory as a Fellow of the European Space Agency ESA and later as a Fellow of the French space agency Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), as well as the Marie Curie Fellowship awarded by the European Commission. In 1996, she accepted the APART scholarship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, to prepare her research in astrochemistry on Cosmic Dust for her habilitation thesis from the University of Vienna. She earned her degree on the topic of "Cosmic Dust" in 1999 and in 2008 went on to earn a master's degree in Management and Leadership from Webster University in Leiden, Netherlands.