As the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory celebrates International Women's Day March 8 and Women's History Month throughout March, we asked some of our staff members to tell us what Women's History Month means to them. This is the first of a weekly series throughout March.
Name: Anna Teplukhina
Position: Postdoctoral researcher, ITER and Tokamaks
How long at PPPL: Two years
Describe your job:
"My field of research is tokamak plasmas. My job is mainly to analyze and understand the physics behind various experimental data collected on the tokamaks, to develop and validate numerical models. These numerical models help us to simulate and to plan in advance plasma experiments and in particular to gain knowledge of plasma parameters that can be measured to improve our understanding of plasma physics."
What does Women's History Month mean to you?
"I think Women's History Month is a great time to highlight women's contributions to science in the past and present and it's a great time to learn something new and inspiring of their stories. These role models from the past and their experience help younger generations to find their place in the various fields of research."
What does working at PPPL mean to you?
"PPPL is well-known for a long and successful story of plasma physics research. This was one of the most important things for me when I was looking for a place for a post-doc. It's really a pleasure to work at such an historic place, with numerous achievements in the field of stellarator and tokamak research. I think it's important to feel a connection with the past, present and future. And this is a great opportunity of working at the Lab with people from different generations and backgrounds, because all of them can share their experience and teach each other some new things."
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