Talks with scientists

Norbert Kucerka: "Challenges are to be accepted"

On the eve of the anniversary of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, the laboratory's website started to fill up with stories of FLNP staff members telling about how they came to science and what research with neutrons is interesting for them. Today, we are publishing the story of the FLNP Deputy Director for Science Norbert Kucerka (Slovakia):

Why I have chosen physics as my career - I can't say for sure, it has always attracted me. Since I had success in physics and mathematics at school, I entered the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Comenius University in Bratislava. How did I come to Dubna? At the end of my Master's degree course, I joined the group of Professor Stanislav Dubnick? from the Department of Theoretical Physics. He and his colleagues have long been tied to Dubna, for a long time he has been the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government of the Slovak Republic at JINR and he has sent all his students to the Joint Institute. It should have happened to me but by the end of my Master's degree course, I realized that theoretical physics was not enough for me and I chose biophysics as a topic for my postgraduate study. The choice was, in general, accidental: Professor Pavel Balgavi at the Faculty of Pharmacy needed a physicist to study out the methodology. As a result, I learned a lot in terms of biology and developed a technique, the application of which soon showed that the use of neutron scattering for research was profitable. And by the end of the first year of my postgraduate study, I was nevertheless sent to Dubna, yet not to BLTP, but to FLNP, to be engaged in neutron scattering. So I accidentally, but very successfully, came to Dubna. I came for three months in 2000 and 2001 and in the end, I prepared and defended my thesis.

Afterwards, I continued to work in various laboratories around the world, I was engaged in the biophysics of membranes and the use of neutrons and later - in X-ray and synchrotron radiation. In 2006-2014, I worked on a neutron source in Canada. The reactor was old, in a couple of years it had to be shut down. I must say that during these years, I have not lost contact with either Bratislava or Dubna. During my first visit to FLNP, I became a member of the group of Valentin Ivanovich Gordely, where I met and worked together with Alexander Ivanovich Kuklin and Akhmed Khusainovich Islamov and later kept in touch with them. And when, while still working in Canada, I started to look for a new neutron source, not forgetting about Dubna, I received an invitation from the newly elected FLNP Director Valery Nikolaevich Shvetsov to return to JINR to the position of Deputy Director with his promise that I would have time to do science. The latter was important for me, because until then I had almost never been involved in administrative work, only in recent years in Canada I have been a head of the group. I really wanted to do science when I came to JINR. Of course, when you change the place of work, you can't immediately get involved, you have to start from scratch, despite the fact that I was already familiar with both the people and the organization of work here.

We were lucky in the area of "Biophysics of membranes". We understood very well the membranes based on lipids: we knew which lipids to select in order to obtain the desired properties of membranes. And we started to think about how to use this information in an applied way. We started to study Alzheimer's disease and the correlation between lipid membranes and beta-amyloid peptide, the main participant in this process, using small-angle scattering and our techniques. We had a successful group of about ten people, including biologists, chemists, modelers, materials scientists and of course, physicists. We received support from the Laboratory, plenipotentiaries and eventually, from the Russian Science Foundation, we carried out good research and achieved breakthrough results three years ago. We currently work on this topic.

Do you pass on your experience to young scientists?

- Students and postgraduate students come to our group: a postgraduate student from Bratislava has been working with us for three years and today, he is due to defend himself. Three years ago, a master's student from Kazan came to us and quickly got into our methodology, got involved into the work, defended his master's thesis, enrolled in our postgraduate programme and currently works in the group. It turned out to be a lucky coincidence. When the reactor was shut down for repairs, we cooperated with Kazan University. We used their techniques, mainly, NMR spectroscopy. In our area, one technique is still not enough, we need different tools, different approaches. It is very fortunate that we have used NMR spectroscopy as it gives a new angle of view, additional information and will allow us to choose the area of the next experiments. And we use the reactor shutdown time to analyze the results and prepare the next experiments.

This year, you put forward your candidacy for the position of the Laboratory Director. If elected, you would no longer or hardly be able to do science. Aren't you afraid of this anymore?

- I am not afraid. Our group has been developed and has been working for ten years, I fully trust all the employees of our Laboratory. As a Deputy Director, I can direct them, but I don't spend all my time on it. I am very pleased with how they are doing, it gives me the opportunity to still do science and also leaves time for other things. I thought about this very well when I put forward my candidacy.

Do you have time for any hobbies?

- I really enjoy playing sports. In winter, we play hockey, the team mainly consists of the staff members of FLNP and other laboratories. We play at the Stadium "Nauka" occasionally, more regularly we play in the "Snegovik". Once a week, I play football at the JINR Sports Club, go to the swimming pool, but most of all I like cycling through the forest, last year I tried out a cycle path along the Moscow Canal. Besides, I have a family with four young children, so I don't have much free time, but I try to get the children involved in sports. We ride bicycles together, went to the skating rink in winter, so I am already able to combine my sports hobbies with taking care of my family.

What can you wish to young people facing a career choice?

- It's a pity that today many students, thinking that they are on an easy way, go into the humanities. Of course, it is easier to defend a diploma there, but what will they do later in life? I would like to wish them to be more careful in choosing an area, for technical specialties, natural sciences - it's not terrible. And if students decide to go into science, then they should not be afraid of any challenges. When in my scientific career challenges arose, I was not afraid of them - I changed areas, changed laboratories and countries. Wherever I worked, I don't think it was a lost time, I always learned something new, saw something new, adopted it for my scientific "repertoire" and today, I can use it all. Challenges are to be accepted.

Olga TARANTINA,
photo by Dorota CHUDOBA