Interview conducted in September 2021

Nadezhda V. Korepanova – engineer at Nuclear Safety Group

I got a job at the Laboratory just after graduating from Tomsk Polytechnic University. I've always wanted my work to be related to reactors. They fascinate me. I refused to work by allocation (obligatory job placement for graduates in Russia) and was looking for a job myself. And so I found it in Dubna. I applied to two Institutes: one in St. Petersburg and the second one in Dubna: the JINR. I was offered a position in both, but I decided that JINR provides more opportunities for career growth being an international organization.

In 2016, I got a PhD position at the Institute of Modern Physics in China (Lanzhou, Gansu Province). My work was devoted to modeling the materials used in the reactor construction by cluster dynamics method. When the lockdown was announced, my husband and I (senior researcher at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, JINR - ed.) returned to the Institute. I would recommend everyone to try living abroad, after returning you feel the difference, you become far more open-minded. Now I am engaged in the data processing of the neutron noise of the IBR-2 reactor, investigating the power fluctuations of the reactor and how that's related to the operation of its auxiliary systems.

All in all, there are a lot of different research areas in our Laboratory, from the atomic and electronic transitions studies to the investigations of archeological finds. We also host summer schools for students, during which everyone can get acquainted with the activities of the Laboratory. I think everyone will find something for him/her here.