“Norway itself is welcoming - since my arrival the weather was ideal.“
Andrius Popovas, Postdoc at RoCS, UiO. Photo: Private.
Since May 2018, a new name has appeared in the list of members of the Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics (RoCS): Andrius Popovas.
He comes from Lithuania, where at Vilnius University he finished his BSc in Computational Physics with an astrophysical module. Then, Andrius moved to Denmark, where he completed his studies and obtained the Ph.D. at the Centre for Star and Planet Formation & the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University.
– During my Ph.D. I was working in computational astrophysics, namely numerical simulations of planet formation.
– In my "free time" I was participating in the MiNDSTEp collaboration. I was working with the Danish 1.54 m telescope in La Silla, Chile, looking for exoplanets using gravitational microlensing technique as well as transits, observing globular clusters, asteroids, etc.
From planet formation to Solar physics.
Andrius will continue working with the numerical simulations, but this time of the Solar
Andrius Popovas, his snow man and the Danish telescope at La Silla, Chile.
photosphere.
– My main work will be to interface the Bifrost code into the DISPATCH framework, which will help to speed up the state-of-the-art simulations of the Solar atmosphere as well as further improve their physical realism.
– What are you trying to achieve?
– By running inside the DISPATCH framework, Bifrost would reap the full benefits of independent time steps; under typical solar conditions this gives a huge speed-up, since the time step is typically constrained by high fast mode speeds in a very small fraction of the simulation box volume.
– A different field of study ...
I am working with a code, of which I was and still am a part of the developers. And since Solar physics is a slight change from what I have been doing during my Ph.D., it is a great opportunity to broaden my field of expertise.
Norway: welcoming and attractive
Thus far his experience in the country is very positive, with a mild exception for the bureaucracy details.
– Colleagues here make the working environment very warm and great, the tasks at hand are challenging and interesting.
– What brought you here?
– Norway was always a country I felt attracted to, with its stunning nature and high living standards. I decided to apply for a position here because it was a very attractive offer both personally and career-wise.
– Your expectations?
– I hope to successfully accomplish all I’ve set out to do, broaden my knowledge and set up strong social and professional networks with my colleagues.
