Astghik Chalyan - 2017 SPIE Women in Optics Planner
PhD Student
Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University (RAU), Armenia
Visiting PhD student
University of Trento, Italy
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Country of Birth: Armenia |
When I was a child, I always was looking for answers. Why do rainbows appear after rainfall? Why we can make colored bubbles using soap. My curiosity inspired me to be an active player of the scientific community and try to understand how the world works.
While I was in high school. my eldest sister studied physics at YSU. She brought me to classes and I met young female scientists. They managed to make a career and to be good wives and mothers.
At university, I attended an event organized by the Armenian SPIE Student Chapter and had fruitful discussions with professors and students that helped me choose my future research topic. I went on to study nanoelectronics at RAU and work at an IT company as a software engineer. Now as the Armenian SPIE Student Chapter President, I aim to get more chapter members and promote the science at new levels.
Currently, I am visiting PhD student at the Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Trento. My research focuses on nonlinearities of silicon nanocrystals and designing suitable devices for the exploitation of this nonlinearity.
I believe that each student needs to have a mentor and to be a part of community that can help him/her to develop his/her STEM career and provide the information regarding different opportunities. It is very important to know what you really want to do and follow your dreams.