Career in nuclear physics
The Ira Rischowski Programme supports international female Master's students on their way into academia
2023/04/11 by Phyllis Mania
The Ira Rischowski Programme at TU Darmstadt supports international female students on their way into science. In addition to their Master's degree in physics, they gain practical experience with a particle accelerator and the data obtained there at the Institute of Nuclear Physics.
“I still have to get used to the cold,” says Ann, who recently moved to Darmstadt from Kerala in southern India, with a smile. To which Valeriia replies with a laugh: “It was much colder in Moscow, and there was tons of snow!” However, the two young women agree on one thing: “We are happy to be here.” Both began their scholarship in the Ira Rischowski Programme, which was launched in 2021 at the Institute of Nuclear Physics (IKP) at TU Darmstadt, last autumn.
The aim of the programme is to promote international female Master's students, to attract talented young female scientists and to increase the proportion of women in physics in the long term. To this end, the scholarship holders receive 600 euros per month during the two-year Master's programme and a position as an assistant at the IKP. Here they pass through various stations related to scientific activities in nuclear and accelerator physics.
Practical experience at the particle accelerator
The 21-year-old Skibina, for example, is currently devoting herself to research data management and learning everything about organising, securing and documenting the data generated at the electron accelerator S-DALINAC and in international projects. Later, the scholarship holders will also be able to gain practical experience at the accelerator.
For example, Kiriaki Prifti, who has already been a scholarship holder for a year, is currently being trained as a radiation protection officer. “Getting such a deep insight into nuclear physics is really great,” says the 23-year-old Albanian. Yet her start in Darmstadt during the pandemic was not exactly easy: after a two-week quarantine, she was able to go exploring outside, but the seminars and lectures were all still held online. So it was difficult to get to know fellow students.
“Much more than just a degree programme”
In the meantime, Prifti has settled in well and is working on her master's thesis. She is currently learning programming for the data analysis and very much appreciates the support of her working group: “Every time I have a question, they are immediately on hand to help me.” Now Prifti is actively supporting her new colleagues herself. Netto says: “She answered so many questions for me by email even before I arrived, that was really helpful.”
For the 28-year-old Indian, it is her first time ever abroad and “much more than just studying”. She has already completed a Master's degree in physics in her home country and was looking for a PhD position for a long time. Unfortunately, her thesis received little international recognition. “The Ira Rischowski scholarship is the door opener I needed,” Netto says with relief “It brings me a lot closer to my dream of working as a scientist.”
The programme
The Ira Rischowski Programme supports foreign female students in nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, accelerator physics and nuclear photonics. The programme aims to prepare the scholarship holders for a successful career as scientists. It is aimed at foreign female students who have obtained or are about to obtain a Bachelor's degree, who have demonstrated above-average performance in their studies, and who have the goal of pursuing a scientific career in one of these fields. The programme offers a scholarship for 24 months for relevant Master's programmes at the Department of Physics at TU Darmstadt to prepare for a future career in a programme of excellence.
A new round of Ira Rischowski scholarships starts annually in October with the start of the academic year. The selection process takes about four months. The result is announced in the summer to allow enough time for a visa application process. Applications can be submitted at any time, but preferably by February each year for consideration until the start of the scholarship in October of the same year.
The background to the programme is a decision by TU Darmstadt to further improve the situation of women in the aforementioned research areas. The proportion of female scientists in the fields of nuclear and accelerator physics in Germany has increased since the beginning of the century from about 12 percent to approximately 20 percent today. However, the participation of female scientists in these fields is still unsatisfactorily low. The reasons range from a low number of female role models who make these fields attractive for young scientists to a below-average number of applications from female scientists for doctoral positions in the excellence programmes in these fields.
Ira Rischowski (1899-1989) was the first woman to begin studying engineering at the TU Darmstadt in 1919. In Germany, she was one of the first women in this field and later joined the Association of German Engineers. This already had more than 600 female members in 1933, but due to the influence of the National Socialists, Rischowski refused to participate in the re-foundation of a women's group.
She went into the resistance as a secret agent and coded correspondence with allies abroad for the organisation “Neu Beginnen”. Because of her Jewish background, she had to flee to England in 1936. As a German citizen, she was initially not allowed to practise her profession during the Second World War. Later she became a member of the “Women's Engineering Society” and was committed to women in engineering until the end of her life.
