Prof. Dr. Silvana Botti (born 1974) is a distinguished theoretical physicist and professor at Ruhr‑University Bochum (Germany), where she holds the chair in the “Theory of Excited States of Integrated Solid State Systems” within the Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems (University Alliance Ruhr). She earned her physics degree (summa cum laude) in 1998 and PhD in 2002 from the University of Pavia, Italy. She subsequently held postdoctoral positions at École Polytechnique and became a Marie Curie Fellow and CNRS research scientist in Paris‑Saclay (2002–2008). After habilitating at University Lyon 1 in 2010, she was appointed full professor at Friedrich‑Schiller‑University Jena (2014–2023), being the first female chair in the Faculty of Physics & Astronomy. In 2023 she joined Ruhr‑University Bochum. Prof. Botti leads research on theoretical spectroscopy and the development of first‑principles methods for electronic excitations using time‑dependent density functional theory and many‑body perturbation theory. Her group applies GW and Bethe‑Salpeter approaches to simulate electronic and optical responses of complex materials, including nanostructures and energy materials. She co‑edited the volume First Principles Approaches to Spectroscopic Properties of Complex Materials and serves as an associate editor of npj Computational Materials. Her work on a silicon‑based direct‑bandgap emitter was recognized as Physics World’s “Breakthrough of the Year” in 2020.