Elke Arenholz
Director, National Synchrotron Light Source II Facility, National Synchrotron Light Source II

Brookhaven National Laboratory
National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 745, Room 5L129
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-8245
(631) 344-8245
earenholz@bnl.gov
As NSLS-II director, Arenholz leads a team of about 350 staff, including scientists, engineers, technicians, and professionals in several fields. While maintaining and improving the 29 beamlines that are currently in operation and keeping them competitive for a growing user community, she is instrumental in completing the construction of the three new NSLS-II Experimental Tools II project beamlines and embarking on the next generation of beamlines being designed as part of the NSLS-II Experimental Tools III project.
Arenholz comes to Brookhaven from DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where she was director of the Physical Sciences Division. In that role, she led a large, diverse scientific portfolio, encompassing fields like catalysis, chemical physics, geochemistry, and materials science. Prior to the division director role, Arenholz co-led the Interconnected Science Ecosystem initiative at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she developed computational and experimental capabilities to enable autonomous experimentation.
Throughout her career, Arenholz has amassed a wide range of experience in synchrotron science and management. She held the position of associate director at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), where she helped the facility adapt to remote experiments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to her role at CHESS, Arenholz held several positions at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, starting as a postdoctoral research fellow and reaching the position of photon sciences operation group deputy.
Research Activities
With a career spanning over 400 publications, Arenholz has delved into the diverse aspects of magnetism and magnetic materials, magnetization dynamics and applications in spintronics, quantum phenomena, and the characterization of novel materials and their potential applications. She has vast interest and experience in X-ray spectroscopy, resonant X-ray scattering, X-ray microscopy, and the development of new instruments for X-ray characterization.
Education
Arenholz earned her Ph.D. in physics, summa cum laude, from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in condensed matter physics from the University of Regensburg, Germany.
Awards & Recognition
In 2024, Arenholz was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for her contributions to X-ray magnetic spectroscopy. In 2014, she was named a fellow of the American Physical Society. At ALS, she was presented with the Klaus Halbach Award for Innovative Instrumentation for the design and implementation of a versatile vector magnetometer for soft X-ray studies in 2005 and the Tim Renner Award for untiring efforts in the assistance of users in generating high profile research results with the elliptically polarizing undulator in 2001. She is very active in the scientific community, serving on several proposal review panels, scientific and technical advisory committees, and conference organizing committees. She is also the editor-in-chief and founding editor of the journal npj Spintronics.

Brookhaven National Laboratory
National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 745, Room 5L129
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-8245
(631) 344-8245
earenholz@bnl.gov