Tatiana is a 4th year graduate student at Harvard University working in Jenny Hoffman’s lab, where she uses scanning tunneling microscopy to image the electronic structure of high-temperature superconductors with atomic resolution. She was recently awarded the Martin and Beate Block Winter Award, which is given to a promising young physicist at each winter conference organized by the Aspen center for physics.

1. Can you briefly describe the results for which you got the award?

We are trying to understand electron interactions in the cuprate high-temperature phase diagram by studying broken symmetries.

2. What do you hope will be the impact of your research?

I hope that this work, and my research in general, will help to uncover the mechanisms behind high-temperature superconductivity.

3. What made you want to be a physicist in the first place?

Most fundamentally, I enjoy trying to solve challenging puzzles, and want to understand as much as I can about how the world functions around me.  I also see the opportunity as a physicist to impact the development of new technologies, which is exciting.

4. If you weren’t a physicist, what would you like to be (and why)?

I think that there are many careers that I would enjoy.  As long as I have a good balance of challenge and feeling useful, I am satisfied.

5. What Sci-Fi gadget or technology would you most like to have / see come true (and why)?

I would love to have Hermione’s time-turner from the Harry Potter series, because I wish that I could choose to use my time in a number of different ways!