This time, Danniele hears from Ania Kwiatkowski, PhD, a nuclear physicist at TRIUMF who is passionate about her work. She talks about the friendly competitiveness of her field, and why she loves nuclear physics so much. You'll hear about how she is working in her dream job, and the advice she has for students to get them to their dream jobs, too.

Guest: Ania Kwiatkowski, PhD (LinkedIn)

Ania Kwiatkowski is a research scientist at TRIUMF and adjunct faculty at the University of Victoria in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. She focuses on understanding the ground-state properties of radioactive ions using ion-trapping techniques. These properties are relevant to investigate nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, and precision tests of the Standard Model. Ania leads TITAN, TRIUMF's Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear science, which performs precision mass spectrometry and in-trap decay spectroscopy.  

Ania received her B.A. in physics and French from the University of California, Berkeley. She pursued her PhD studies at Michigan State University, performing research at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. After a four-year postdoc at TRIUMF, she became faculty at Texas A&M University in 2015 and later returned to TRIUMF as staff. Last year, she received the Stuart J. Freedman Award in Experimental Nuclear Physics from the American Physical Society.

For a full transcription of this episode, click here.

Relevant Links:

• "A. Kwiatkowski Awarded the Freedman Award," Michigan State University
• Ania's research while affiliated with TRIUMF
  
• High-resolution mass spectrometry
  
• Ion trapping
• Quantum Computing
  
• Rapid neutron-capture process (Wikipedia)
• TITAN at TRIUMF
• TRIUMF

Hosted by: Danniele Livengood (@livengood)
Theme Music: “Positive and Fun” by Scott Holmes
Produced by: Vanessa Reich-Shackelford