Dr. Anastasia Tyurnina
Visiting Researcher, Skoltech, Moscow: characterization of graphene and 2D materials
It was me who first found graphene at Moscow State University. My supervisor, Prof. Alexander Obraztsov asked me to check about 200 different materials using an old raman spectroscope. One by one I went through the list, but one sample I always put it aside, it looked empty. I’ll do it later, later, later. But finally, because I needed to do everything my supervisor said, I scanned it and there was a signal. I scanned it again, there was a good signal from high quality graphite. I went to my supervisor and said “there's something going on here, it’s an empty sample but I see a signal.” And then, a month later Andre and Kostya’s paper was published and Prof. Obraztsov said “We found graphene as well.”
And so on 6th October, 2010, the day after the Nobel Prize was awarded, I defended my PhD at Moscow State University. Now I am at Manchester I feel lack of the words in English to explain my feeling about working next to Andre and Kostya. When I worked in Japan I climbed Mount Fuji, and I met the sunrise. It was my 27th birthday. Then when I worked in France I climbed Mont Blanc. But here in England I don't need to do anything else. For me to work next to such scientists is already enough. That's how I can compare.