February 11 is International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Ilaria Zardo
Meet five women and role models who work in the SPIN network and learn why they chose a career in science, what they love about their work, which obstacles women in science face to this day and which joint efforts of men and women alike are necessary for a future with equality in science. The women presented here are Anna Fontcuberta i Morral (EPFL), Mridula Prathapan (IBM), Heike Riel (IBM), Kirsten Moselund (IBM) and Ilaria Zardo (Unibas).
Ilaria Zardo
Associate Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Basel
At every step of my career (student, PhD student, PostDoc) I got the confirmation of my impression: Science is beautiful in every aspect. I like the process going from having an idea, to designing an experiment in order to verify it, to conducting the experiments and to, finally, reading out the results. Meanwhile, it is important trying to be objective all the way, without being biased by your original idea. I also love the scientific discussion with colleagues and students, as well as transmitting my passion to the younger generation of students.
“The aspect that fascinates me the most about physics is the ability to understand the reality as a whole, in all its aspects, without losing sight of what binds the individual elements together. ”
My group works in the nanophononics field: We design and investigate materials to control their thermal properties at the nanoscale. For this reason, we also grow semiconductor nanowires, which are also designed for other purposes like the realization of quantum computation.
The aspect that fascinates me the most about physics is the ability to understand the reality as a whole, in all its aspects, without losing sight of what binds the individual elements together. The greatest satisfaction is to add a little bit to the understanding of the phenomena we observe. Each beautiful article is therefore a great satisfaction of the moment... But you are never done because what is left to understand is still much more than what have understood till then.
Unfortunately, culture as well as society, are still “men-dominated” and often there is an unconscious bias to face. Being a minority, a woman's way of talking, responding, reacting and communicating is as if not understood. A woman who enters the room is perceived as the "strange object". We can just “offer” our experience, trying not to lose ourselves becoming what society expects us to be.
I wish for women to be... whatever they want. To express themselves in their work without the burden of giving up something or becoming more similar to men and without feeling guilty. Unfortunately, I do not think this will happen in the next generation, but every step in this direction will be an important one.
“I wish for women to be... whatever they want. To express themselves in their work without the burden of giving up something or becoming more similar to men and without feeling guilty.”