Anu Kankainen is excited to continue her search for astrophysically important nuclei as professor of physics at JYU
Kankainen is interested in the fundamental question of how chemical elements are made in the cosmos.
“In order to fully answer this question, we need data on atomic nuclei,” Kankainen says. “Almost all chemical elements have been created in stars via different processes combining and transforming nuclei into other nuclei and elements. To understand nucleosynthesis occurring in stars during their lives and deaths, we need data on nuclear properties, such as their masses and lifetimes.”
The Accelerator Laboratory of the Department of Physics at the Ģֱ offers an ideal place to conduct research on astrophysically important nuclei. Experiments at the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line (IGISOL) facility have especially resulted in many scientifically important results related to exotic nuclei and their properties.
Observations accelerating science
“We are living exciting times in nuclear astrophysics,” Kankainen says. Multimessenger observations from binary neutron star mergers will yield new and unique information on events where the heaviest elements are created.
“More multimessenger observations from neutron star mergers are anticipated. The James Webb Space Telescope will also provide an increasing amount of data on the oldest stars in the coming years. A supernova explosion in our own galaxy would provide a wealth of data for modern observatories. On the other hand, we have unprecedented possibilities to study exotic nuclei with novel techniques, and new facilities will soon be commissioned in Europe as well as the USA.”
To bridge the measurements on exotic nuclei and stellar observations, state-of-the art simulations are needed. The simulations have taken great leaps in recent years with more powerful high-performance computing facilities. Professor Kankainen is looking forward to the coming years: what kind of discoveries or observations will be made and how will those be interpreted with the new data from accelerator laboratories and simulations?
Anu Kankainen started as a full professor of physics on 1 January 2022 after being an associate professor since 2019. Kankainen completed her PhD in 2006 at the Department of Physics at the Ģֱ, after which she has worked as an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher and research fellow at the Ģֱ. In addition, she was a researcher at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh from 2013 to 2014. In 2017, Kankainen was awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant for her research.
Kankainen has promoted the societal impact of physics research by acting as the chair of the Finnish Physical Society as well as via several interviews to popular science magazines in Finland. She is an editorial board member for Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics and European Physical Journal A.
Kankainen is well connected to the worldwide nuclear physics community. She is a member of the ISOLDE and Neutron Time-of-Flight Committee at CERN and also sits on the NuSTAR Board of Representatives at FAIR. Kankainen has also served in many international evaluation panels, including as a member in the ERC Consolidator Grant 2021 PE2 (Fundamental Constituents of Matter) panel.
