Your goal is to win international grants too and to be part of projects that will help you pass on your researcher mindset, knowledge and critical way thinking to the younger generation. Who inspired you?
Scientific thinking runs in the family. My father is a teacher of geography and biology, and my mother graduated as a mathematician from Szeged. They answered any scientific question I had. Furthermore, I had an excellent mathematics teacher at Kisfaludy Károly Secondary Grammar School in Mohács. It was in my last year at school when I started considering careers my love of mathematics would make me suitable for. In the booklet on university degree programmes, I read about the physics programme, which is based on mathematics, but has myriad points of connection with everyday life, as a degree in physics enables you to do anything from data analysis to meteorology. I found this freedom and the wide range of possibilities appealing. By the way, I ended up in this field of science without even taking an advanced level matriculation exam in physics. And the reason for choosing Szeged over Pécs, a university city much closer to my hometown, was not only my mother’s and my family’s ties to Szeged, but also the excellent reputation of Szeged University for optics and laser research, which reached Mohács too.
Did you ever feel the disadvantage of finding your interest relatively late?
Physics is based on mathematics. In the first year, we had a lot of maths subjects that didn’t cause any problem. And we started physics from the basics, so I could quickly catch up. I was in my second year when Judit Budai from the Department of Optics and Quantum Electronics invited me to join her research group. Although I had not come to the university with the aim of becoming a researcher, I found the opportunity appealing. After I obtained my master’s degree, it was straightforward that I would enrol into a PhD programme. At the university, I worked on ellipsometry, a method used for analyzing surfaces. When ELI ALPS became a reality and the positions were advertised, Judit Budai and I both came over and have been working together ever since. Our mentor–student relationship has evolved into a casual collegial relationship. She has more experience, yet she still relies on my professional opinion.
You also work at the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics. How did you get there?
My immediate supervisor, Péter Dombi heads a division at ELI ALPS, and he also leads a team at the Wigner Centre. He approached me with exciting research tasks and I was happy to accept them. I provide background support for the experiments conducted there, mainly running simulations and interpreting experimental results. I work on similar topics at the two institutes, and it is difficult to set them apart.
Why are you attracted to physics?
The essence of physics is experimentation. It is about getting to know and understanding phenomena that others have not seen or understood. You first look around to see what open questions have arisen in your field of interest. Then you choose a question, plan, set up and test the experiment, and finally you conduct the measurements. What I like most is the evaluation of measurement results: figuring out what might be behind what we see. We analyse the data from different angles and perspectives, while diligently reviewing literature. The most fulfilling feeling is when we are able to answer all the questions that came up. It sounds simple, but it often takes three or four years from asking the question to getting the result. The beauty of our work is that no two days are the same, because we always do something a little different. It is important to write articles and present the results at conferences. I applied for this award in part because I knew that the winners would be given the opportunity to attend a communication training course. This is important to me because I see it as my job to reach out to the general public, so that ordinary people would believe that a certain result is indeed a major achievement. I’ve noticed that when I spend too much time in professional circles, I use words that people less familiar with the subject do not understand. I would like to avoid slipping into jargon too often.
At the beginning of an experiment, can you see whether it will be of any practical use?
That is the goal, but we often end up in dead-ends. However, we can and must learn from failures too. In one of our projects, we illuminate thin layers of metal with very short laser pulses and observe what happens. We believe that these systems could eventually be used in light-based circuits. If we do succeed, the speed of signal processing and electronic circuits could be significantly increased. That’s our goal, but there are still a lot of building blocks to put in place. Over time, a given experiment may turn out to be useful from a totally different aspect.
Which of your achievements are particularly close to you?
I like the ones where I feel that my ideas have contributed to the work. Earlier, we designed and built a metal structure on which we were able to demonstrate the shortest plasmon wave ever measured. We recently published a paper with colleagues from Graz University of Technology who worked as users in Szeged. We produced the special samples for their experiments conducted in Graz. At the end of the measurements, they detected an anomaly that they could not explain. I had an idea that explained the strange phenomenon. Although I was not personally involved in the experiment, I could propose a useful solution.
Over the last two or three years, you have published papers in high-impact journals. Your work has been recognized with the Junior Prima Prize, the Bárány Róbert Prize and the Bolyai János Research Scholarship. And now you have been awarded the Hungarian L’Oréal-UNESCO Scholarship for Women in Science. You have been hailed as one of the promising experimental physicists of your generation…
To be honest, this year I feel that what’s happening to me is probably too much. You must know that in the last one and a half years my life has been only partially about science. The explanation: my son is one and a half years old. I dropped out of work completely for half a year, and then my husband, Balázs Major, who also works here, and I decided to both continue our research working part-time at ELI ALPS. Of course, this required the consent of the management of the institute, but it was a logical decision from a Family Friendly Workplace. Or not quite, since I don’t know of any other researcher in the country who has the same opportunity as a father. I think it would be worth preparing for this situation too. Mothers enjoy preferential treatment in various grant applications, but the same does not apply, for example, to men who work part-time in their jobs to help their wives to stay on a research career track. If there was an institutionalized “discount”, perhaps more men would follow Balázs’ example.
From what you’ve said, I gather that you don’t regret being adventurous and choosing a career in physics.
I’m in a good place where I feel comfortable. My work is recognized both by the Institute and the wider professional community.
What are your goals?
I can work with excellent colleagues who have been contributing greatly to my achievements. But my dream is to implement more larger scale programmes. Perhaps my current and future achievements will give me a chance to successfully apply for European research grants. Winning a major grant in the European community, such as the ERC Starting Grant, would be a great success – but only if I can combine it with a balanced family life.
Profile:
Zsuzsanna Pápa graduated from Kisfaludy Károly Secondary Grammar School in Mohács in 2007. In 2012, she earned a master’s degree in physics at the University of Szeged. She received her PhD degree from the same university in 2017. Since 2018, she has been working at ELI ALPS as a research fellow. Her achievements have been acknowledged with the Junior Prima Prize in Hungarian Science (2021), the Bárány Róbert Prize (2022) and the Bolyai János Research Scholarship (2024).
Photos: Gábor Balázs
Author: Zoltán Ötvös