Interview for the issue

D.Chudoba, "I'm glad that it was
the Laboratory of Neutron Physics I came to"

At the end of July, Dorota CHUDOBA left for the Czech Republic with her family, yet she still works remotely in FLNP as an advisor. She started her research career at the Laboratory of Neutron Physics in 2010 as a senior researcher, later, she was a group leader and in 2012, she became the Laboratory's Scientific Secretary. For over ten years, she has headed the IBR-2 reactor user programme.

Before leaving, we met with Dorota. She told us how she had started working at the Laboratory of Neutron Physics, reminiscing about her teachers, colleagues and facilities. Our first question was how she came to physics.

- I became interested in astronomy at school. Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan had an astronomy department and it offered an elective course for school students that I attended. I wanted to enroll in that department, but they didn't accept first-year students: you had to first complete three years of physics. I enrolled in the physics department, learned about potential future research areas and realized I didn't really want to focus solely on astronomy. I was drawn to the Physics of the Earth and Atmosphere programme that included some astronomy but mostly, physics and geology. Geology intrigued me even more. When it came time to choose a research topic in my master's programme, I chose solid state physics that I worked on in the group of Professor Christina Holderna-Natkanec.

I defended my master's thesis and decided to continue my studies in graduate school. As a student, I had traveled to Germany and wanted to continue my studies there. I found this variant: graduate school in Poznan, but studying in Germany. Everything was fine but life always throws its curveballs. At some point, my advisor told me I had to end this dichotomy. I had to choose and since studying in Germany wasn't funded, I stayed in Poland. I began researching synthetic hormones, their structure and dynamics and the impact of various factors on their dynamics in a group collaborating with the university's Faculty of Pharmacology.

While still in graduate school, I met Professor Wojciech Nawroczyk (a member of the Scientific Council, a long-standing expert and later, Chairman of the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics at JINR - O.T.). I want to say that I met many good people along my journey from university to Dubna. One of them was Professor Wojciech Nawroczyk that first suggested that I attend the neutron school in Julich (Germany) and then, to come from there to JINR. By train! It was, I believe, 2004, when the JINR UC was offering an internship for undergraduate and graduate students as part of the Bogolyubov-Infeld programme. That's how I first learnt about neutrons in Germany and later, in JINR. We had internships in all the laboratories, but I was immediately assigned to Ireneusz Natkanc's group at the Laboratory of Neutron Physics. He happened to be the husband of my graduate supervisor and they had met in Dubna.

My internship ended, I returned to Poland and continued my research. After a while, I came to JINR for a three-month internship. I tried to learn as much as I could but it was difficult because I didn't speak Russian and the topics were new to me. Dr. Natkantz wasn't an easy teacher; he's not the type to explain everything. When I asked him something, he'd be surprised: "What? You don't know that?" I realized I needed a different approach. I'd start talking about something and he'd pick up the topic and continue it. And so, I learned more about inelastic scattering, our facility and much more. I spent two months absorbing knowledge, trying to write everything down and in the last month of my internship, he went to a conference, leaving me to carry out an experiment. It was spring but the ice hadn't melted yet and our engineer Vladislav Sukhanov fell and injured his arm. I was left without technical support, without knowledge of Russian (the first things I learned were "hello", "thank you", "I don't speak Russian").

During this period, I became very close with Igor Sashin, a researcher in our group. Unfortunately, he passed away long ago. He said to me, "Dorota, I'll help you." At first, everything was going well, but then the sample holder broke. We needed to arrange for a quick repair at the workshop. Igor made the arrangements; I wouldn't have been able to. As I later understood, Natkanets gave me a test. That's how they teach swimming: they throw you into the deep end and see if you float. I carried out the experiment and he later said at a conference: she can work. The next time I came, it was for a year and I worked in his group. Besides Igor Sashin, it included Lev Smirnov from Moscow and the young and very talented Slava Kazimirov, a wonderful man, that unfortunately, passed away very early. We talked a lot and I learned a lot from him about both science and technology. He had the patience to speak English with me.

It must have been 2006, the end of my PhD programme and I left Dubna. My thesis was ready, but my advisor thought everything needed to be double-checked and recalculated. I thought this work would take me six months, but it ended up taking three years. Finally, in 2009, I defended my thesis and was transferred from Professor Jan Wojnscicki's group at Adam Mickiewicz University to the Polish FLNP group, where I began working in January, 2010. He accepted me into the group on the condition that I replace I.Natkanets that was soon to retire and to return to Poland. Of course, I wasn't appointed group leader right away, but a year later, I did. The group was small and my task was to increase the number of staff. I managed to invite several specialists from Poland and employees from Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The number of people grew to 8-10. It was a Polish neutron group, the main cooperation was with Poland and the users also came from Poland.

Was that the group that was established around the Krakow-Dubna KDSOG spectrometer?

-Yes, the group that was established in the 1960s by Professor Jerzy Janik. Afterwards, there was the NERA spectrometer that we modernized several years ago and it currently operates. Today, I try to revive the group, although it can no longer be called Polish: the majority are Russians, with two members from Kazakhstan. We don't have many specialists in inelastic scattering, but there are others physicists and chemists that want to develop in this field. I worked hard to bring Evgeny Goremychkin to our group - a top-class specialist that has worked in both the US and the UK. He's a very good, kind person and he helps me a lot; without him, things would be very difficult.

Do you currently work on developing a new spectrometer?

- NERA certainly operates well, but some time ago, we decided to replace that spectrometer with a new one. We were going to install the new spectrometer in place of the old one. Our Department Head Denis Kozlenko suggested: why to shut down an operating spectrometer? There's a non-operating spectrometer on beamline 2; we can construct a new one in its place. Several years ago, I organized a group that began working on this project. Key figures in the project were E.A.Goremychkin and A.V.Belushkin. Alexander Belushkin has been a great help, giving valuable advice. He could be called the scientific leader of our group. Initially, we discussed this project extensively with Alexander Ivanov (ILL) and Jiri Kulda (ILL), along with colleagues from Krakow. Students from St. Petersburg State University helped with the calculations and A.V.Belushkin proposed the first outlines of the facility's concept. We later discussed and developed the initial idea, debating various issues. We already have a prototype installed and testing at the beamline. The first measurements were carried out during the spring sessions and more are scheduled for the autumn. Afterwards, we'll be able to analyze the results. As for the neutron guide, the geopolitical situation played a role. I hope the spectrometer will operate. We named it BJN. We thought long and hard about what to call it and the best name we could come up with was the first letters of the last names of Polish scientists Bajorek, Janik and Natkantz. These are three eminent scientists that developed inelastic scattering at FLNP and they are all from Krakow. So, my mission is to capture history, so that the memory of those who pioneered this research will be kept alive forever.

Besides your colleagues in the group, especially as Scientific Secretary, you have had the opportunity to contact extensively with the heads of various departments, their secretaries and other FLNP employees. How comfortable it was for you?

- A wonderful person, Alexander Strelkov, said, "Nothing matters, only people." And I thought, he was right. It doesn't matter what project you're working on, what experiment you're carrying out, whether you get results or not. The most important thing in life is human relationship. I'll probably forget what experiments I have carried out but I'll remember who I have worked with. It's important to me that here I can easily talk to Director and to such eminent physicists as Alexander Frank, Walter Furman and Anatoly Balagurov. I also have good relationships with the workshop staff, with our office-cleaner, she's a wonderful, very warm person. I don't know about other laboratories but there are many good people in ours. I have felt very comfortable working with everyone, despite being a foreigner. At first, I sometimes heard people say, "You won't understand it, you have to be Russian to understand it." Now, I don't hear that anymore. I'm so glad I came to FLNP. We have such a great atmosphere, wonderful people, a close-knit staff and always good directors. I know that if I have a problem, I won't be left alone to deal with it.

Did you meet your husband Vratislav in Dubna?

- When I was coming here for a year, a Polish friend of mine introduced us before leaving. We started dating. I left and he stayed to work at the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. We decided that he would wait for me for a year. He waited for me for three years. I returned in 2010 and in 2011, we got married. We registered our marriage in St. Petersburg, at Wedding Palace No. 1 on the English Embankment! We kept it a secret from everyone. The day before the registration, we sat on the embankment and called our mothers; they knew, of course but even they didn't know what day the wedding was. And there was no wedding, not even witnesses, just us and the photographer. And we've been together ever since.

You used to post photos of your travels together on social media. Do you travel with your children, too?

- I confess, my husband and I have never vacationed in an all-inclusive seaside hotel. We already have a running joke. The kids start saying, "Mom, dad, we want to go to the sea, just not to the Barents Sea!" We try to show them Russia but I love the north; I have a really good time there. I don't really like the heat but when it's really winter, it's wonderful. Two years ago, I went to the Kola Peninsula to see the petroglyphs with my children. It's very beautiful and it's interesting to learn that people lived here two thousand years ago and skied just like us. And for some reason, these places aren't overcrowded with tourists. We've also been to Lake Onega and Belomorsk and we try to introduce the children to nature and the sights. My husband and I used to love traveling by motorcycle. We've even traveled to the north, along the Golden Ring and even to Kazan by motorcycle.

And Dubna has already become a memorable place for you over the years...

- I think even more. Our family was formed in Dubna; it's home for our children.

I hope you'll come back here.

- We'll see. I'm not saying no; I have such a desire.

And I think everyone who knew Dorota would like to see her again at FLNP, in Dubna.

Olga TARANTINA,
photo by Igor LAPENKO