Mini-Profiles of STEM Role Models 14

All of the mini-profiles published so far have been special to me, but it is a real honour to post the contribution from Prof. Petra Rudolf, a pioneering physicist, a key player in establishing the Rosalind Franklin Fellowships at the University of Groningen, of which I am an extremely lucky recipient, and a strong supporter of, and role model for, women in STEM.

I hope that you enjoy this mini-profile and the others in the series!

Job title:

Chair Experimental Condensed Matter Physics and head of the Surfaces and Thin Films group (Zernike Institute Institute for Advanced Materials, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen)

Subject area:

Developing new functional materials and characterizing their properties

How did you get into science?:

I always loved nature and was fascinated by an inspiring elementary school teacher who explained that you could understand nature by making models. I studied physics despite pressure to chose language studies and in my second year I visited a research group and saw the professor direct his research group – that’s when I decided that this was what I wanted to become.

Where else have you worked/studied?

La Sapienza University (Rome, Italy): Physics with specialization in Solid State Physics, TASC laboratory (Trieste, Italy): Research fellow in Surface Science; AT&T Bell Laboratories (New Jersey, USA): Beamline scientist at the National Synchrotron Light Source; University of Namur (Belgium) PhD, then lecturer and senior lecturer; and while at University of Groningen visiting professor at Università degli Studi di Modena, Italy; Institut Universitaire de France, Paris; Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy; University of São Paulo, Brazil; University of Santiago, Chile.

What are your hobbies/what do you do for fun?

Reading, traveling, listening to music, cooking, organizing parties for friends.