City girl Rijutha Jaganathan is all set to meet Nobel laureates from across the globe, where she hopes to gather further insights from the renowned personalities.
Rijutha is one among the 580 young scientists from 88 countries, chosen to attend the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany scheduled from June 30 to July 5.
Rijutha, 25, is currently doing her PhD at Aarhus University, Denmark. She is also a part of the EU project - Europah, where ongoing research focuses on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
A resident of Koramangala, Rijutha studied at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai before moving to Denmark in 2017 to pursue doctoral studies.
Her passion for astronomy was kindled at a young age when she would stay up all night, along with her parents, to watch the occasional meteor shower or the lunar eclipse. She was a regular at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium.
“I combined my passion for astronomy to my work. I am doing research on experimental surface science techniques like Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy to study and understand the catalytic properties of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the interstellar medium,” she told DH from Denmark.
In 2012, Rijutha was one among the 30 undergraduates selected from all over India to attend the 6th Asian Science Camp in Israel, where 5-6 Nobel laureates interacted with young scientists over a few days.
“It was a turning point in my life. Till then I had believed that only highly intelligent people studying in the best universities in the world can be scientists. Listening to Nobel laureates and their stories made me realise that passion and dedication are all that one needs,” she said.
She said the Lindau Meet will be the perfect opportunity to widen her network in the scientific community and get inspired to come up with original research ideas for her career in science.