#WNBiPonWednesdays: Shivangi Sharan

We’re back! After a short break we’re really happy to be running our interview series again, with a new name, #WNBiPonWednesdays! To start off this term, we’ve interview Dr. Shivangi Sharan, a Post-Doctoral researcher in the Space, Plasma, and Climate Community. Thank you for your time Shivangi!

As an introduction, what is your area of expertise within Physics and what are you currently working on?

My area of expertise is in planetary magnetism, more specifically, on interior structure determination by making use of magnetic field measurements from satellite missions. I have worked on Earth, Mars and Jupiter and am currently working on Ganymede in my postdoc. The JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission to study the moons of Jupiter was launched on 14th April 2023 and will reach Jupiter’s orbit in 2031. In the meantime, we are trying to prepare for the science that we hope to do after we receive the data from the satellite. One of the main aims is to understand the interior structure of the largest moon of our Solar System, Ganymede. The moon is believed to possess a subsurface ocean that we are very interested in. My work is to predict the magnetic signals we can obtain from the ocean that will help us confirm this layer.

Describe your path into physics, what kickstarted it?

At the risk of sounding clichéd, my path into physics was driven by my curious nature and my love for space. One of the first things I was very fascinated with was thunder and lightning, I found them very pretty 😄 I would always be asking ‘why?’ and thought studying science would be the best solution to this question. Since I wasn’t sure what area of earth/space physics I wanted to explore, I tried to take up internships in different topics and finally landed doing a PhD on planetary magnetism.
When did you decide that you wanted to pursue a career in research?
Surprisingly (as other people say), I decided very early on- while I was in high school- that I wanted to pursue research. I think what motivated me further was watching other people in my family and around working in the conventional jobs that require you to do almost the same thing eve

ry day. I disliked the 9-to-5 schedule and was quite convinced that it is not for me. On the other hand, research sounded very cool to the young me.

What was the most difficult point of your journey to where you are now?
I think the most difficult time was when I was doing my master’s. My university was well-known to have one of the toughest physics curriculum. In our first year especially, we had to ta

ke a few compulsory courses that was very different from what I wanted to pursue. I think I burnt out a lot during that time.

Looking back, what advice would you have for your younger self?
I would say ‘Keep doing whatever you are doing!’ because if she didn’t, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I think the reason I finally can do what I always wanted to was because she perceived through all the good and bad times and was tenacious enough to set a goal and work towards it.