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SYMPKO: |
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Hello,
my name is Orest Sympko and I'm a professor
of physics at the university of Utah
in the department of physics. I got
my bachelors degree there, masters degree
in science, and then I went to get a
PhD in England and postdoctoral studies
and work at the University of California
at Sandi ego La Hoya, know as UCSD. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
kind of science do you do? |
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SYMPKO: |
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First
of all I'm an experimentalist and I'm
involved in studies of solids, liquids,
gases, low temperature physics, magnetism,
essentially the field known as condensed
matter physics. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
makes your science important? |
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SYMPKO: |
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Science
for me is very important because it's
so interesting. It advances our knowledge
of everything around us and also leads
to many applications. Humanity relies
very heavily on science. Everything
we do is based on science. Our pleasures
our hobbies and our lifestyle is the
way of science. So it's something very
fundamental but also very basic. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
made you decide to go into the field
you study? |
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SYMPKO: |
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What
made me decide… Obviously I was
interested in science and its broad
field of physics, but there was one
professor in particular who talked about
his research and I thought that it was
exciting. The more he talked the more
I got excited. And just by listening
to him I said, "Well, I want to
do exactly that". And that's what
made me do it. Of course there was another
professor in another field, he probably
could've gotten me excited in another
field. But this man was so interesting
and so excited about what he was doing
that he just passed it on to me. |
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ASPIRE: |
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How
did you come to the U of U? |
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SYMPKO: |
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One
of my professors heard about a position
here at University of Utah and told
me "Look, You should go look them
up". It's a dynamic university.
It has a lot of possibilities and it's
a great place to live. So I came here
for an interview, visited the place
and took the job. They made me an offer
I couldn't refuse. |
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ASPIRE: |
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Did
you ever attend school in Utah? |
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SYMPKO: |
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No,
I never did. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
do you like most about your job? |
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SYMPKO: |
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What
I like the most is the fact that it's
a side of being uniquely interesting
as you meet a lot of very exciting people,
interesting people, always new people
showing up on the horizon. For example,
every year, every time you lecture a
class there are always new students
coming in. there are a lot of visitors
that come here, interested in the science
that you are doing. But especially the
students, they make it all very exciting. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
do you like least about your job? |
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SYMPKO: |
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Probably
what I like the least is the fact that
we don't have enough time to do all
the things one should do, and when one
is heavily involved in teaching, heavily
involved in research, and some ways
they compliment each other, they're
similar. But it's the frustration about
not being able to do all the things
that need to be done in a certain amount
of time. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
hobbies do you have outside of your
field of work? |
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SYMPKO: |
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Quite
a few hobbies. I play music, a certain
one of them. I play the violin. I'm
very much interested in music and how
it related to our sensations of human
beings. How the physics comes in. How
was it developed? Others hobbies that
I have is running, hiking. So quite
an interesting lifestyle. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
advice would you give to an aspiring
scientist? |
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SYMPKO: |
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My
advice to an aspiring scientist is to
get involved in research as soon as
possible. Talk to people. Find somebody
that does something that you might be
interested in and get involved. Start
at the bottom, washing beacons or whatever
but do get involved because being in
touch of those people sort of gives
you a clear idea on what to do, what
you would like to do and what some of
your ultimate goals would be. So do
get involved. Come to the university.
Talk to some of the professors and say,
"Look, I would like to work with
you". Or at least visit us and
say "What are you doing?".
We would be happy to have students coming
in and visiting us but do get started
as soon as possible. |
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ASPIRE: |
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More
text here... |
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SYMPKO: |
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All
right then, thank you for your time. |
