The Young Physicist of the Year Sonja Kujanpää enjoys laser spectroscopy and many skills demanding work at the Accelerator Laboratory
Sonja Kujanpää made her Master’s thesis on the field of experimental nuclear physics. The thesis consisted of two parts. In the first part, the magnetic octupole moment of stable ytterbium was determined using collinear laser spectroscopy at the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line (IGISOL) facility at the Accelerator Laboratory of Ģֱ.
The second part lead her to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, where she in collaboration developed improvements to a setup utilizing collinear laser spectroscopy and multi-reflection time-of-flight device (MIRACLS).
The thesis was supervised by postdoctoral researcher Ruben de Groote.
As a summer student at CERN, Kujanpää was inspired by laser spetroscopy while working with ISOLDE research group.
The results were published in the prestigious journal
In the Finnish Physical Society’s competition three contestants advanced to the final. Sonja Kujanpää participated in it with the video summarizing the results of her Master’s thesis.
“I'm happily surprised and thankful for this award. The research was successful and the results are included in the article published in the prestigious Physical Review A”, says Kujanpää.
Presently, Kujanpää is doing doctoral research in experimental nuclear physics at the IGISOL group, concentrating on laser spectroscopy. The research is mainly done using the RAPTOR setup, which will utilize collinear resonance ionisation spectroscopy (CRIS) to enable the measurement of complex and exotic atom systems. Part of this work is also done in collaboration with CERN. The supervisors of the work are Professor Iain Moore and postdoctoral researchers Ruben de Groote and Mikael Reponen from the University o Jyväskylä.
Physics research is inspiring to a young scientist, and in the future she would like to work abroad, for example at CERN.
“As a researcher every day is different and I’m able to use a wide variety of skills from 3D modelling to electronics at the Accelerator laboratory. I like how the work in the lab is very practical, you can construct and design measurement setups and components from scratch”, Sonja Kujanpää concludes.
Link to Kujanpää’s winning video:
Link to Master’s thesis:
Read the article in (March 22, 2021)
in the field of physical sciences. The purpose of this prize is to support young researchers and acknowledge them for the exceptional work.
For further information:
Sonja Kujanpää, sonja.p.kujanpaa@jyu.fi
The Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Communications Specialist Tanja Heikkinen, tanja.s.heikkinen@jyu.fi, +358 50 472 1162
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