Studium na univerzitách ve Velké Británii (czech)

Po dlouholetých studiích v zahraničí jsem se rozhodla sdílet své poznatky a zkušenosti.  V tomto článku popisuji přijímací proces, financování a jiné praktické rady ohledně bakalářského neboli undergraduate (UG), magisterského a doktorského studia, tzv. “graduate” a “postgraduate” (PG) studia. Sama jsem ve Velké Británii dokončila celé maturitní, undergraduate studium až po Mastra (magister) a doktorát (Dphil Oxon), takže vše co v tomto článku píši jsou osobní zkušenosti posbírané za posledních deset let. Poprvé jsem přijela do Británie ve svých šestnácti letech, kdy jsem získala roční stipendium na soukromé internátní škole v St. Andrews, Skotsko. Toto se brzo prodloužilo na dva roky a ve Skotsku jsem i odmaturovala  nakonec jsem na tomto zeleném ostrově zůstala deset let. Nikdy jsem toho rozhodnutí nelitovala.



My DPhil research project (Oxford)

Coming to the end of my DPhil (PhD) people often ask me what it is actually that I do. I believe that all Physics can be explained in the simplest terms and since this particular one actually has some exciting applications (at least I think so) in many fields including Astrophysics and thermonuclear fusion, I feel like this could be of an interest to the wider general public. So here it is ...

Inferring The Equation of State of Shocked Liquid Deuterium Under Conditions Relevant to the Interiors of Giant Planets and Inertial Confinement Fusion

OCSS Launch Party review, May 2011

Launch Party: An Enjoyable Day For All

The first official event of the newly founded Oxford Czech and Slovak Society was a major success. Over 50 attendees showed up throughout the afternoon and evening dedicated to the OCSS Launch Party on Friday 13th 2011 held at St John’s College in Oxford. We registered 39 members on that day and expect the numbers to continue rising throughout this year. We had people from all spheres of Oxford life including students and staff of the University of Oxford as well as visitors and residents of the city. Apart from Czechs and Slovaks we even attracted a few other nationalities including English, Swedish and even Japanese.

A summer in Delaware, 2007

Imperial College London – University of Delaware Exchange 2007 Review

Katerina Strakova

4th Year Physics, Imperial College London

I was fortunate enough to be selected as one of the five Imperial College students to undertake an undergraduate research project at the University of Delaware in summer 2007.

I worked under Professor Matt Decamp in the Physics Department in Sharp Laboratory. His research interest is in intense laser interaction with matter. My project involved building a gravity driven liquid jet that would be used to produce X-Ray pulses by interaction of a high power focused laser beam with a thin film of copper solution. This was a challenging task as Prof. DeCamp was only just starting his research in Delaware and all the laboratory equipment was still under construction. This meant that I had to design my piece of equipment as well as find the cheapest and most suitable equipment to be ordered. On many occasions I had to improvise and cooperate with the Physics machine shop as well as the Chemistry department glassblowers, because some of the pieces were not commercially available.

An experience of meeting a NASA astronaut, Nov 2005

Scott Kelly has been both a US Navy commander and a space-shuttle pilot. In 2005 me (Katerina Strakova) and my friend Ivan Minev (now doing a PhD at Cambridge) had the unique opportunity to invite him to give a talk about his experiences at NASA to the school and university students in London. The event was organized by the Imperial College Astrosoc, an astronomical society run by the students at Imperial College Student Union, and the Outreach Programme.

Introduction

Dear readers,

This is my first proper blog entry, yet it is not my first article. I have previously published some scientific articles (peer reviewed as well as popular science) and other smaller pieces, but I have never had a continous record in a form of a diary or a blog. I have thus decided to finally start this blog as there were many things I felt like I could share and might be of an interest to the public audience. I was born in the Czech Republic, but I have lived in the UK and US for past 10 years. My background is mostly in science and education. I enjoy nature, hiking, outdoors activities and general traveling. My articles will therefore touch subjects close to my heart such as science (popular science), education (advisory articles to students as well as personal reflections), life in the Czech Republic, United Kingdom and the United States, and other travels. I will be writing articles in both English and Czech.

So, why the title "Per Aspera Ad Astra"? Well,  I guess like for many others this old Latin saying, loosely translated as "through hardship to the stars", it has become a bit of my life motto. The same expression is sitting on the memorial lifted for the crew of Apollo 1 and has been associated with many amazing historical characters and events. But mainly, it is the fact of life ... nothing is ever for free, big dreams and achievements need to be earned. I have emerged from a relatively modest start (Well, at least I used to think that until I realized that the Czech Republic was far from poor and my family far from underprivileged, but that is was they liked to tell us back then), as a child a struggled heavily at school due to something that was ignored by the old educational system and later diagnosed as a severe case of dyslexia; I never was the best student, but somehow won a few scholarships and competitions; as a woman, I entered a subject with the greatest male dominance of them all and earned my place in the world of science. There were always so many challenges, but the rewards were great. When I was a child, I wanted to become an astronomer and the motto of aiming to the stars across many obstacles just felt fitting and I stuck with it. Now, I am a researcher in plasma physics and have worked on many astrophysical projects, so I guess the main goal has been achieved. I love what I do and I am happy where this motto got me and I am thus going to use it in this blog.

Enjoy!

Katja