The National Institute of Subatomic Physics Nikhef establishes a fellowship for a female post-doc researcher, in memory of the late Nikhef researcher Olga Borisovna Igonkina (1973-2019) who died a year ago today.
The appointment is for three years and is intended for female researchers with experience as a post-doc.
The appointment is intended to encourage talented female physicists in their choice for a lasting career in science. Nikhef is convinced that as an institution it is gaining strength by attracting and retaining more women in its scientific community, the initiators say.
The appointment allows candidates to concentrate on research while being part of the vibrant scientific environment within Nikhef. Her research must be in line with one of the research areas of Nikhef within subatomic physics.
The Russian-Dutch particle physicist prof.dr. Olga ‘Olya’ Igonkina died May 19 2019 at the age of 45. She was a staff member of Nikhef and a professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen and was regarded a very involved and enthusiastic supervisor, collegue and lecturer.
Igonkina was part of the ATLAS experiment at CERN, where she also played an international leading role in the research. In 2018 she received an ATLAS outstanding achievement award for her work and the electronics of the ATLAS detector.
Earlier, the Olga Igokina Foundation, set up by Igonkina’s widower and particle physicist Dr. Wouter Hulsbergen of Nikhef, set up a travel grant in her memory, for young Russian talents in the field of particle physics. Recently, the first grant was awarded to PhD student Viacheslav Matiunin of ITEP in Moscow.