“I thought I’d end up working at a power plant,” says physicist Zlata Kelar Tučeková about her field

Women don’t need to be afraid of physics. According to researcher Zlata Kelar Tučeková, the stereotype that women aren’t suited for the field is fading: “Plasma physics is highly interdisciplinary, so people from many different fields can get involved.” She works in research, teaching, and science popularization. In this interview, she talks about her journey, practical uses of plasma, and the stereotypes she’s helping to break down.

You work in plasma physics research. How would you describe your job to general public?

As a researcher, I work in a laboratory where I run experiments. People often imagine white coats, chemicals, and vials, but that’s not what I do at all.

Instead, we work with electrical plasma sources – in the lab, that means more like arc discharges and sparks. We generate different types of plasma at atmospheric pressure, so we don’t need any vacuum chambers or complicated equipment.

When we switch on our tested plasma source, it creates a small dielectric barrier discharge – it’s not lightning, more like a micro-discharge. Then we use energetic particles generated in plasma for further research.

In practice, someone comes to us with a request to modify surface properties of a material – for example, a polymer from a PET plastic bottle, which naturally repels water.And without chemicals, we can change those properties just by applying discharge from our plasma source.

 

You supervised a project developing a decontamination chamber that uses plasma-activated gas. How does this technology work, and what are its main advantages over conventional sterilization methods?

We developed a chamber in which we can place contaminated material and use plasma and its products to destroy bacteria.

The advantage of such an approach is that we don’t apply chemicals directly – we use gas that’s been activated by plasma. Thanks to plasma-chemical processes, the gas acquires decontamination properties, and we fill the chamber with it.

Compared to other methods, one big advantage is that the material is ready to use immediately after decontamination. There’s no need to wipe surfaces down or wait for residues to evaporate.

We don’t use high temperatures, low-pressure, or aggressive chemicals. Therefore, in our chamber, we can treat sensitive materials, including biomaterials, which we’re currently testing.

 

How did you get into physics, and plasma specifically?

Originally, I thought I’d be a math and physics teacher, but I was advised to study physics in general and decide on my career later.

I started at Comenius University in Bratislava, and at first I felt pretty lost. I was wondering if I should have chosen teaching instead.

But later in the study, we had a lecture on plasma physics, which caught my interest. In my second year, I chose it as the topic of my bachelor’s thesis, and I’ve stuck with it ever since cause I enjoy it.

Before that, I couldn’t really picture what a physicist does besides theoretical physics or astronomy – I thought I’d end up working at a power plant. But physics is incredibly broad and offers many different paths.

 

STEREOTYPES ARE FADING

 

Did you encounter any stereotypes?

In secondary school, I was the only girl in the physics seminar – others inclined to biology or chemistry. But physics made sense to me, and I liked it.

My parents were asking what I was going to do with it, what future employment I have in mind, and suggested studying law, economics, or teaching instead.

Today, I feel that the stereotype that physics is a male field is gradually disappearing. It helps that more young people and women are visible in science, and also that there’s a broader picture of what physics actually covers and where it can be applied.

 

What were your early years at university like?

They were tough. Suddenly, everything was much more complicated, and you realized you needed a strong foundation in math. The first two years were really a struggle.

On the other hand, it brought our class together a lot. I never felt like anyone treated me differently or suggested I couldn’t handle it because I’m a woman.

 

Is there a difference in how women in science are treated in Slovakia and the Czech Republic?

These days, Slovakia is catching up with the Czech Republic. What I really liked about the Czech Republic´s funding scheme is that it offers grants for young researchers and return grants after parental leave.

When I moved to the Czech Republic after my PhD, it wasn’t because women necessarily have it better here, but because of the opportunity to get grant funding – for young people who still have the energy and the drive to work late into the night.

Science is not about favoring women or any specific group, but about making sure young people have opportunities and that parental leave is taken into account. I think that’s the right approach, and that’s what I appreciated when I came here.

 

What does the representation of women in your field look like today?

In our group, it’s fairly balanced – among PhD students, it’s about fifty-fifty.

Plasma physics is very interdisciplinary – it overlaps with biophysics, microbiology, and chemistry. We work with biomaterials, polymers, and bacteria, so people from many different fields can get involved. That also makes it more accessible.

 

Besides research, you also teach and popularise science. What´s in it for you?

In teaching, I mostly lead practicum and lab sessions. I enjoy it when students try out a real experiment for the first time and decide whether they want to pursue experimental work further.

With popularisation lectures, the preparation is different – you can simplify things so a broader audience can understand them. Sometimes that comes at the expense of precision, but that’s not the point in that moment. If you use too many technical terms, no one will understand. Also, I feel like the feedback from a general audience is often quicker than from students, whose attendance is sometimes just mandatory.

I think that if science outreach across different areas of physics had been as widespread back then, when I was deciding my future career, I might have found my way to it sooner.

 

What advice would you give to young women at the start of their careers?

When choosing a field of study, you’re basically deciding what you’ll do for the rest of your life. Therefore, it’s good to be a bit stubborn and refuse to go somewhere just because it’s “more suitable for women.”

And even if it doesn’t work out, that’s fine – you can always change your field. But it is a shame not even to try just because someone says it’s not for women.

At the beginning, you need to work hard and sometimes really go all in. At the same time, it’s important to watch your limits so it doesn’t come at the expense of your personal life.

That way, you find out for yourself how much you can handle and when it turns into unnecessary overwork.

 

And is that kind of pace necessary throughout your whole career?

No. Sometimes you end up working late, for example, because of a deadline, but it’s usually just occasional. I can’t imagine every single day being like that.

 

Author of the interview: Adéla Lerchová