What to Expect:
In this episode, Sofia Ferreira Teixeira, a postdoctoral researcher specializing in spintronics, shares her insights into how this technology can make electronic devices faster and more efficient. Sofia discusses her academic journey, her favourite experiments, and the potential of spintronics in enhancing electronic device performance.
About the Guest:
Sofia Ferreira Teixeira
Sofia Ferreira Teixeira is a postdoctoral researcher at CIC nanoGUNE in Spain. Originally from Portugal, Sofia’s research focuses on spintronics and its applications in improving the performance of electronic devices. She has a background in physics and has worked extensively on electronic and magnetic properties of materials.
🌟 Key Takeaways from This Episode:
- Spintronics Technology: Sofia’s research focuses on enhancing the speed and efficiency of electronic devices using spintronics.
- Career Journey: Sofia’s journey from studying physics in Portugal to conducting spintronics research in Spain showcases her expertise and dedication.
- Favourite Experiment: Sofia’s favourite experiment involves investigating the spin properties of materials to optimize electronic performance.
🔬 In This Episode, We Cover:
Sofia’s Research :
Sofia’s research focuses on using spintronics to enhance the performance of electronic devices. Spintronics involves manipulating the spin properties of electrons to create faster and more efficient electronic components.
Sofia’s Career Journey :
Sofia’s academic journey began with a Bachelor’s in Physics in Portugal. She pursued her passion for electronic and magnetic properties of materials, leading her to her current role as a postdoctoral researcher at CIC nanoGUNE in Spain.
Sofia’s Favourite Research Experiment :
Sofia’s favorite experiment involves investigating the spin properties of materials to optimize their performance in electronic devices. This research has significant implications for the future of faster and more efficient electronics.
Life as a Scientist – Beyond the Lab:
Sofia values the collaborative nature of scientific research and enjoys engaging with the global scientific community. She is passionate about teaching and mentoring the next generation of scientists.
Sofia’s 3 Wishes
- Increased funding for research: Sofia wishes for more financial support to advance innovative research projects.
- Greater collaboration between researchers: She advocates for stronger partnerships to enhance knowledge sharing and collaborative efforts in research.
- Improved public understanding of scientific research: Sofia emphasizes the importance of public awareness and support for scientific advancements.
Sofia’s Time on @RealSci_Nano:
Sofia will be taking over the RealSci_Nano Twitter account to share her research on spintronics and its applications. Followers can expect to learn about the innovative techniques and complex materials her work focuses on.
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to Under the Microscope. I’m your host, Pranavati, and today we have with us Sophia Ferreira Tashiera, and she’s going to tell me all about how she’s going to make my phones faster and my laptops faster, and by that extension, all the devices faster. And I’m going to ask her all kinds of questions related to material science.
So Sophia is a postdoc. She’s a postdoctoral researcher at the CIC, nano Goon Institute. And I’m gonna ask her, what does that stand for as well? It’s in Spain, it’s in the northwest of Spain. Ish. Sort of east. East? Yeah. East. Great. My, my, um, my, uh, geography is amazing, so Well welcome Sophia. How are you? All fine.
All fine. Thank you for, for having me here. And uh, yes. I’m, I’m originally from Portugal, but I’m now in the northeast of Spain in the region called the Basque country. And that’s why the name is actually Nano Gune, because Gune is place, let’s say in Basque. So I’m working at the Nano place. I said it, it’s in the West, but it’s actually in the East and East is also where Barcelona, how far is it from Barcelona?
Just give me that. That’s a good question. I actually don’t know, but if I can give you a better reference, I’m 20 kilometers away from France.
Okay, that works better. I need to know [00:01:00] where to go when I’m visiting you, right? Because I’m definitely, I’m going to make it, it is actually already been my mission to visit all of my curators of the past five seasons. So yeah, I’m looking forward to that. Let’s get started with understanding your research about how you’re going to make my and everyone else’s phone fast.
How are you going to do that? Please tell me about your research and super simple ones. Tell me. Simple words. So pretty much how we can make that happen is to find. materials with better properties or new properties, it depends, that can make us or that can make our life easier because then we can make new devices that can make actually our phones work faster.
So one of the ways we can make this, um, this work is with spintronics, which is a big word, but it’s a big word made of two words. That is electronics of spin and electronics, well, that’s a bit easier, let’s say it’s the thing you have when you plug something that’s electricity, but with the spins and the [00:02:00] spins are a property of the electrons that much like they have a charge, which so the electrons moving, let’s say it’s what makes the electric current.
They also have a spin, and I can also create spin currents and create. Several other things that we can use to then create devices. We create a lot of things to then make our phones go faster. I don’t know if this is in a simple term, but I that’s like the very simplified version. It is definitely in simple terms.
So just to oversimplify this, I’m going to try to oversimplify the oversimplification. So the electron is going from point A to point B. While the electricity is going like this, like in a linear fashion, so to say, it’s also like the electrons are dancing while they are going from point A to point B. How they’re dancing, that’s a different, that is what the spintronics is.
This is something, you know, but it’s basically electrons are. Twirling, whirling, moving around, doing stuff, spinning, basically, while going from point A to point B. And this is what is going to make our devices. electronic devices faster. Yes. So how we control that spinning. So the magic of it is that we can control that spinning with the electricity.
So the charge current and how we control it and how fast it can go and how long it can go. It’s what, so certain materials allow us to do this better or not, or allow [00:03:00] us to do this in a way different than the others. And that’s what I try to see how we can control them, how we can control this spinning of the electrons.
That’s what I kind of do. Okay. That is, I have so many questions, but what is the shortcoming of the current materials or setups that we use? So what is the value addition of these new materials or the new techniques that you are, like, what is the difference here? So the first obvious, uh, answer, and the literally kind of first sentence I had on my PhD defense, is that 4 percent of the energy consumption of the entire world is already these devices.
So that’s a lot. And it’s just bound to increase and increase and increase and increase. At the time where more and more people need to have electronic devices because we are more and more dependent on having access to the internet and so on. So we need to find new ways to do the same things or to do the same things in a different way as well.
It’s the same, but to make it faster, make them more energy [00:04:00] efficient and also try to make them faster. So Spintronics We’ll do this devices in a different way to be based on different effects on different materials, but we could make certain calculations or, for example, certain memories that will be more energy efficient and that maybe on the if you look at just one device using these techniques, it wouldn’t be that much.
energy saving thing. But when you add up the amount of microprocessors, the amount of bits we have in our phones versus the number of phones in the world, it will be a big, a big change. So that is the first obvious answer. And then the other one that was kind of spoiling in my explanation is that for certain processes, the devices based on spintronics could be faster.
And that’s also a good thing because One of the problems that we’re currently reaching, uh, is that the speed of processes in our phones, it is scaled exponentially, but it’s getting to a limit. And, um, that also comes with a limit of the size, because if we look at the normal transistor, and this was actually, uh, first predicted back in the sixties [00:05:00] or fifties, I don’t remember by Moore.
Which was, I think, correct. Well, don’t correct me, but correct me in the comments. The first president of Intel, it predicted that the number of devices, number of microprocessors, for example, that will fit on a number of transistors that will fit, will double, uh, every other year. So it will be an exponential growth.
But the problem is we’re reaching the end. We cannot go small. We cannot go smaller than an atom. So we are getting to a roadblock. We cannot go faster. We cannot go smaller. And we also need to go, uh, more energy saving devices, like I said. And there are several solutions around there. Several researchers working in several approaches and one of them is Pintronics.
So that’s, that’s how it is kind of, uh, connected and make sense. That, that makes sense. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. So, or what I’m curious about is how did, how did this Because this is a completely new field for me. Right. And I’m sure for most of the listeners as well. So how did you, how did you end up being a postdoc?
Uh, 20 [00:06:00] kilometers from the French border in Spain and, uh, doing this research in spintronics with electronic and magnetic properties of the materials. So please tell us about your career journey so far. How did this happen? It’s a very good question and a very, very interesting one because at the same.
time I had it easier, but it’s an interesting, uh, it shows how science works. So I decided to do a bachelor in physics because I actually, when I was in high school, I participated in a one week long summer school of physics for high school students, and I felt at home in the physics department. So I felt, okay, this is where I need to be.
I was a typical nerd in high school with good grades and everyone was telling me, go to medicine, go study that or something. But I didn’t know exactly what I wanted. It was either maths or engineering, something like that. But then I was in the physics department and it was like, It’s this. And in the Bachelor of Physics in my university in Porto, in northern Portugal, there is a something called extracurricular internship programs.
[00:07:00] So you can spend the second semester of the year, so from February until July, sort of, working with a postdoc, with a PhD student, with a professor, with whomever wants to have students join their labs or If it’s theoretical, they’re computers, let’s say, they’re code. And so I signed up for an internship that I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was like, uh, energy conversion based on cars, on the automobile industry.
And I remember my friends that were more into theoretical physics saying, you signed up for that? That sounds so engineering, like, whoa. And I was like, well, The effect sounded interesting, thermoelectric effect, that sounds cool. And I had an interview with the professor. Spoiler alert, it ended up being my PhD supervisor.
I got it, I got that internship. And what we were doing was to work with thermoelectric, the thermoelectric effect. Which is something, okay, detour, we were working on spintronics, but now thermoelectric effect. Something, so it’s a property that certain materials have, that converts, well, all materials, but some do it better than others.
Convert electricity into heat and vice versa. So now you may understand where cars come from because if you had a long drive and you put your hand in the, in the, in the car, in the car. [00:08:00] It’s going to be hot. So it’s trying to take advantage of this waste heat around us. That is, uh, I think the number I used to say in talks back in my bachelor’s and master’s was 60%.
So there’s a lot of energy around being wasted. And so my, my internship was trying to optimize, uh, the geometry of these devices. And that evolved into trying to optimize the materials. And that was until I had to decide what to do for a master’s thesis, still with the same professor working the three years.
And it was like, oh, for a master’s thesis, you know, we can try something different. Because if it doesn’t work, the goal of a master’s thesis is for you to know how research works, to go to a lab, to gain experience, to learn because you’re a master’s student. So, I don’t know if you saw that, it was 2016, 2017.
So you know the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016? It was for topology. You know what? The materials you’ve been working with are topological insulators. Do you want to try and study [00:09:00] these materials for this thing? And I was like, yes, let’s do it. So that’s how I started working with topological insulators, measuring their electronic transport properties, because that was the big background of my group.
And then some reports starting to appear, combining them with magnetic materials. And another big background of my group was magnetic materials, and like, spin bulbs, and again, we, spintronics. And so I started combining both of that background. And then it got to deciding what to do for a PhD. I was like, okay, I like working with this nice supervisor.
And for a PhD for me and what everyone said, and I agree a hundred percent, one of the most important things, if not the most important is the relationship with your supervisor. Having someone behind you that when you’re at your lowest and everything is going to hell in the lab. It’s still, no, go continue.
It’s like that understands you. And I had that because I was working with him for four years already. [00:10:00] We continue on the topic and we continue to explore this materials that we’re fabricating as a thin film. So nanometer scale with the magnetic materials, with all the expertise of the group. And expertise of my other co supervisors that were, uh, also, um, I spent some time in London, so I also went there to do some measurements, and that’s how I ended up working in Spintronics.
So, I went from Thermoelectrics. To, oh, these materials also do something interesting. Let’s look at that. Oh, if we combine them with something we know, oh, let’s look at that. And this is where I am. At the end of my PhD, I wanted to do a postdoc. I didn’t want to continue in Portugal. I wanted to, I would go anywhere.
I was interested in going anywhere, I applied anywhere that had a position opening. And I ended up here, working on the other side of the coin first, working on the magnetic part, not so much the topological insulator or that type of material part. And, Yes, that’s how because the group here works has a lot of experience.
Fun fact, one of the jury members of my [00:11:00] thesis on my PhD was one of the group leaders on my group. So there was already a connection there sort of. Um, so they, they have experience in the field that was starting, let’s say with my PhD and I applied and here I am. And that’s it. That is so cool. That is so cool.
So thermoelectric, topological insulators, 2D materials, somewhere in between, like all kinds of, and now with spintronics, with like electrical properties, magnetic properties, and the spins of the electrons. That sounds really, really, really cool. I have to say. It sounds Very cool. And I’m pretty sure you are also involved in a lot of interesting research projects.
Of course, of course. It’s like from your internship to like even from your bachelor times and everything. Um, if you have to pick one research project, just one, um, that you’re most proud of. Or the most fun or quirky one. Could you pick one research project and explain it to us in super simple, simple words in the section we called, in other words.
Oh, so I, uh, it’s hard to [00:12:00] decide on one. Extremely. No, it’s a tough question. I know, but I love putting my guests on the spot. So, but the first answer that comes to my mind, because. not so much, also the scientific part, but not so much scientific part, but how it kind of shaped my path is all the way back to that first internship and, uh, others I did on thermoelectric devices.
So why do I think that is a project I really liked? First, it was obvious what was the application. So I was studying physics. I didn’t want, I don’t have a profile for an engineer, but I still wanted to know that my work had a Could have an application, and with thermoelectric devices for cars, well, that’s obvious to start with.
And then I was, you know, a bachelor’s student. We think we know zero, we know nothing. We know the PhD students are the smart ones, and then you get to be a PhD student, and that’s not the case. Different story. That’s a different conversation. Different conversation. So, I was doing some simulations, all happily, learning how to simulate stuff in the software I was using, understanding what is the thermoelectric effect, all those equations and all that, and it [00:13:00] gets to a point where I start having results, and it gets to a point where my supervisor goes, maybe we can publish this.
And I was like, how? Publish this? This is just work from an undergrad. There’s no interest. Nobody will be interested in this. I was like, no, no, no. Write the paper. Start writing the paper. I’m like, how do I write the paper? I never wrote the paper before. Do it. I’m here to help you. And that was one of the great things of my old supervisor because he lets you learn and draft because that’s the point.
You, you are not going to have your perfect, the first thing you do perfectly, but with that iteration, that’s how it goes. So I learned that. And that paper suffered a bit, getting the first submission we had, it got rejected. So I learned how to deal with that. And then the second one went through, but several rounds of discussion with the reviewers.
So I learned how to deal with that, and it got published. And I was like, wow, amazing. I’m happy. But then it still gets citations to this day. And I don’t [00:14:00] know. So I still kind of think as an undergrad, I don’t know how the work is so obvious. An undergrad could do it, but no one ever bothered. And it’s something that is important.
And this work, so obviously the thermoelectric effect, and I love learning that. And it gave me a big background of, on transport property. So all the lingo of science that I’m still used to this day. But it gave me, okay, never underestimate your work, never underestimate yourself. So if you’re doing something and you’re being guided and someone is saying, okay, no, that’s interesting.
You should believe it. You should go through it. Believe in yourself. And that’s why I kind of have this project, even though it was as an undergrad, like it has a special place, let’s say, because it taught me a lot. Not so much on the scientific part, even though, yes. But on everything else, so that is really cool and kudos to your supervisor as well who is being like yes No, you’re gonna write it.
I’m here if you fall. I’m here to catch you. You will learn and it’s it’s It’s good to build that muscle as [00:15:00] well of you know It’s sad to say, but rejection in science is very, very like papers get rejected. Your conference abstracts get rejected. Your, um, your research grants get rejected. So sadly that is the system that we work in.
So, um, It also teaches you a lot. Sometimes the rejection is for a good reason, of course, and that’s when you get in conversation with the reviewers. I mean, not conversation, but in dialogue with the reviewers that sometimes makes your paper even better as well. But yeah, this is, this is really cool. I’m very, I can understand why you picked this project because I’m pretty sure it’s close to your heart.
It is. And every time I get to the citation, I’m still like, how? Okay, thank you. It’s good. It’s good. Uh, it’s good. Uh, do not question the working system. Shush. I just accept it and go with it. That is, that is really cool. So, um, Sophia, in the last almost an hour that we have been speaking before recording and also during the recording, it is very evident for me that you love the Research aspect of being a scientist, right?
You love, uh, going in the lab and getting your hands dirty. Metaphorically, we are all wearing gloves and everything, um, sorry, getting the gloves dirty, getting the gloves [00:16:00] dirty. Exactly. Um, But what else do you like about being a scientist? Because doing research is one integral part of being a scientist, but there are a lot of other things that we often don’t really talk about.
So what else do you like about being a scientist? So, uh, one of the Very obvious for someone in the field, but not so obvious if you’re not a scientist, is the internationality and team aspect of it. So I, as a scientist, you cannot work alone or better. You can, but you’ll take 10 times the time to do something and maybe you cannot even achieve it.
You need to work with other PhD students, other postdocs, your supervisor, with those postdocs and PhD students in other groups, in other countries. You need to ship samples, you need to go yourself, and this international aspect of it always captivated me so much that when I finished my PhD I was happy to go anywhere in the world.
I ended up in one country next to my original one, but, fun. How life goes. It’s still international. Learning Basque is a fun experience. Um, but, uh, and also the, the, the teamwork aspect of it. And, you know, I, I don’t like working alone. So this in [00:17:00] science, that’s a good field, but also the traveling and going to, because you have to, you have, as a scientist, people don’t understand, don’t think that we think we are closed up in the lab, always running experiments, the measuring, and we do that.
But most of the life, the work of a scientist is to, this sounds bad, but sell ourselves. We need to show our results. We need to show it by publishing. We need to show it by going to conferences. We need to show it by visiting another group and measuring there and sharing knowledge. And most of, a lot of this sharing knowledge involves traveling, involves going to a conference, uh, in another continent and so on.
And I really like that because I also really like traveling. So. It overlaps really well. Um, another aspect of it, I call it, well, that’s a lot to do with research, but it’s the main basis, is the adrenaline. I call it the adrenaline for the mind, because when you finally figure out that result that you’ve been trying to figure it out, and when you finally find the, you do a measurement and it’s like, Oh, this is the last piece of the puzzle that was missing.
I can finally understand this. Cause a lot of the times research is like, you have. Layout of the puzzle, you know what it should look like or what it can look like. And then you start gathering the [00:18:00] pieces and there’s a lot missing, or they don’t fit. And you need to rotate them, you need to find how, how it fits.
And when you finally find it, it’s like, oof, it’s a rush. It’s like in a roller coaster, the feeling, I’m not to be fun, but what people say, like when they go randomly down, it’s like, That rush is, is fantastic. So I also really like that. And, uh, it’s like an addiction in a sense, like you, you figure out something, you finish a project and you want to start the other one, or you do both at the same time because you want to have this rush of understanding the world around you and that’s amazing.
Yeah, absolutely. I simply have been thinking about it, this adrenaline rush or this fascination of that moment when it clicks, when it all comes together. And that is. I remember that every scientist remembers that when that happened for their master thesis or PhD thesis or any of the projects, postdoc, anything, anything whatsoever.
And I remember during my master’s, when I was growing the graphene back then, there were, we were still growing graphene with like, you know, chemical vapor deposition. And this was in what, 2013, 14, um, 10 years ago. Wow. It was, it was a long time ago. And. I remember, of course, we were in the clean room. I was in the clean room.
I think I was alone [00:19:00] there. Uh, and I opened the furnace and I could see the graphene on the copper, uh, because the rest of the copper oxidizes. So there is the contrast. So if your flake, graphene flakes are big enough, you can see them with your naked eyes. And for a second, I thought, okay, is my sample dirty?
And then I realized, No, this is actually graffiti and it was so cool. I really had to get out of that, the clean room suit and go out into the, like by the lake, uh, that we had in it just to calm down a bit, because it was like, yes, finally, it’s, it’s that joke and that we want to run around screaming Eureka, Eureka, we, we want to, it is true.
It is, it is true. And the best part is when you’re surrounded by scientists. They all get it. They all understand it. They’re just like, this is, this is amazing. And also when we are doing the science communication, be it at the conference, what you call [00:20:00] the selling of the, uh, of the results. Also, the room understands it because these are the people in the field and they have faced similar questions.
They also, it just carries forward definitely. And also the other two points that you mentioned, the international nature of science. I think that is so true. I have never been in more international, more diverse groups than I was while I was doing research. It’s just, that’s just, that’s just a, that’s just a fact, at least from my experience.
And some of the most traveling people that I know are scientists. They are the ones who are always traveling, be it for conferences, be it for, uh, project meetings, be it for visiting other labs, other people, other institutes and stuff. So yeah, traveling and being a scientist that goes Hand in hand. This is very, very like, at least from master onwards, probably not during the bachelor time, but masters, as soon as you start putting results out, I think that’s, uh, that’s totally, uh, so cool.
I’m so happy for you. Yay. Yeah. Sometimes you need, you need other [00:21:00] people to tell you, Oh, your job is cool. So that you actually realize it’s very cool. Yeah, it is. It is very cool. So we talked about the, the good sides of your, your job. Of course there are downsides as well. So if you had three wishes to improve your research experience, what would you ask for?
And I’m not promising anything here. Disclaimer. Otherwise, otherwise I will, I will, I will come after you. Sworn to the oath. So, I don’t know, one of the first, like you said, science is very diverse, but still not enough. Not enough, no. Still not enough. And, um, I feel like there is a, it’s getting better, but there is still a stereotypical image that people have of what the scientist is.
That’s not true. Like I’m probably not the stereotype, except being a nerd, that’s stereotypical and true. I’m probably not the stereotypical image a lot of people have of a scientist. And that is not ideal because I’ve noticed the more diverse a team is, the greatest things are achieved because they come with new ideas from their background.
They thermoelectrics all the way to spintronics. I have the background knowledge of thermoelectrics and maybe it’s not expected for, for other, in other, in that field and things like that. And I think we should have more diverse people at the table and also more empathy because not everyone will [00:22:00] behave the same as a scientist.
Like, Some people are more introverted, some people are more extroverted, some people like to answer questions, to ask questions after a talk, others like to go after, find the speaker and ask it, and ask all the questions, ask them all the questions, so diverse profiles exist, and we need to kind of accept them, and have empathy for each other, not just the audience.
Okay. This is how it should do. And this is how you, you, you, you should be. And that’s not a great thing in science. Another thing I will say is not to look so much in the numbers. We have a lot of published, especially as opposed to publish or perish that famous sentence, and it’s getting better. Uh, my group here is an example and, uh, it’s getting better.
They, we’re starting to look past just the numbers through the numbers, number of citations, papers, age index. It’s important, but it doesn’t define. someone as a scientist. They can be great in the lab and be really bad at writing, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad scientists. They can accomplish great things.
And looking into this other, let’s say, parameters of a person, of a scientist, and take them into consideration, I think we should start doing that and be like the standard, not just looking at the numbers. Because it creates this [00:23:00] pressure, and instead of focusing on doing good science, I focus or my colleagues focus on, okay, I need to publish.
I need to publish. I need to find what is the thing and publish and rush for the science. You don’t even enjoy it. And that’s, that’s not, that’s one of the things I will definitely shave. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, yes, science is diverse, but it could be, it could be a lot better. It could definitely be a lot better.
I totally agree with you on that. And there’s publish in Paris. I think this is now changing, uh, slightly. It is going in the right direction. It’s very slow. The progress is very slow, but, uh, it is going in the right direction. So those are your two wishes. You still have a third one, Sofia. I can’t complain now because I mean, uh, and I can say that.
In general for Spain, but especially here in the Basque country, there’s a lot of, uh, sciences regarded as, uh, an important thing. I think science is regarded as an important thing everywhere, but then the money doesn’t speak, doesn’t show that. And here I have funding, I have a great institute, I have technician support and so on.
But I’ve, I’ve worked like in my PhD and I wanted to do that. I had that idea. Let’s do this. Oh, we can’t. Why? Because [00:24:00] you don’t have access to that machine, or you cannot do that, and we don’t have that target, and it costs a lot, and that kind of barrier, it will exist always, but if, in an ideal world, if I could have a genie granting me free wishes, I will, I will remove that barrier and make science a bit more accessible in that sense, so not so much dependent.
Not on money, because it will depend on money, but more access to realize what are the ideas that people have, let’s say. If that makes sense. Yeah, that that makes complete sense, not just in terms of money, but also in terms of like facilities and having access to those instruments or those materials or those data analysis softwares.
It could be everything that goes with it. So, so that you can spend more time on doing this. the research and just focus on that. So, yeah, all three very valid issues. I hope they all come true sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed. And before I let you go, Sophia, this has been a fun conversation, but before I get let you go, I have one last question and that is about, um, part of featuring on under the microscope is also you get the keys.
to the Real [00:25:00] Scientist Nano Twitter account for an entire week. So what can the followers, the more than 3, 200 followers, expect? I know.
It’s good. These are all the audience who are dedicated and they want to hear about the materials and nanoscience. So what can they expect in the week that you’re taking over the account? So I will try to take you literally also into the clean room. I need to talk with technician, but I will try to show you what is the.
my experimental work. So what I do on a day to day basis. So I’ll take you, for example, to the clean room to show how I fabricate my materials, my devices. I will take you to how I prepare them to measure. I’ll show you how we measure. Uh, I will also try to give a background on what I’m actually doing in terms of science.
Like we started this, this conversation. So explain what I might do. What am I doing? What actually is the reason? What are the reasons for me to do this research? What could be the applications and so on? Explain a little bit. And I also want to show you the other parts of being a scientist that I’m involved.
So the sitting at the desk, the having to write papers, reviewers, revisions, and all this extra stuff I also do. So I’m, [00:26:00] for example, involved in the gender equality committee here in my work. I’m involved in European Magnetism Association. I was involved in the International Association of Physics Students, all name dropping.
And This is all important and actually helps, even though it makes me way too busy sometimes, it helps a lot to first distract myself because it becomes like an hobby, but also understand that my work can have great impacts and can, it spreads. Like if you’re feeling great about your work and others also start feeling great about your work.
And if you’re in a team where everyone is motivated about science, or in my case, it was physics, you also get motivated yourself. So I also want to highlight this part that a lot of times. gets forgotten and it’s quite important. So that’s kind of what you can expect from me. Okay. That’s, that’s good. Uh, for teaser for everyone to follow along and log into and check the real scientist nano feed when you’re taking over the account.So thank you very much. So yeah, this has been so cool and cannot wait to have you on real scientist nano of course, and, uh, following all the tweets. Thank you very much. This [00:27:00] has been super, super wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And yes, go check out all the tweets I’ll be tweeting.
Faster phones, thanks to SPINTRONICS
Sofia is a Postdoc at CIC NanoGUNE (Spain).