Angela Merkel's incredible rise from quantum chemist to the world's most powerful woman

Advertisement

merkel

Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stands in front of her election-campaign tour bus before a meeting in Berlin on September 16, 2013.

The world's most powerful woman earned her Ph.D. in quantum physics, presides over the richest economy in Europe, and is the central broker in a massive euro-bailout deal.

Advertisement

Germany's Angela Merkel is the undisputed leader of her political party, and she faces hardly any opposition in her now third parliamentary term as chancellor.

Merkel rose from humble beginnings under an oppressive East German regime, overthrew her political mentor single-handedly, claimed the top spot as Germany's leader much like her late British counterpart Margaret Thatcher, who also had a degree in science.