Carina Persson (Sweden)
| Hi! My name is Carina Persson and I am a PhD student in astronomy at Onsala Space Observatory outside Gothenburg. |  |
Astronomy has fascinated me all my life, but I did not start my undergraduate studies at Uppsala University, Sweden, for different reasons until I was 35 years old. At the time I had tried several different occupations - including working with local television and as a cultural worker. I was also a single mother to four children of ages 3-9 years. But I managed to graduate with excellent grades anyway since I enjoyed studying again - and especially astronomy - so much, and also thanks to all the dedicated teachers and scientists at Uppsala University. After my graduation in 2003 I obtained a PhD position at Onsala Space Observatory and now I have only about 1.5 years left before my dissertation!
In my research I mostly use data from the sub-mm satellite Odin, which is a Swedish-French-Canadian-Finnish project. We are observing water and molecular oxygen in the interstellar medium in our galaxy, which consists of huge gas clouds in between the stars. It is here in the densest and coldest parts that stars are born and it is also that to these clouds they return their gas when they die. Sometimes I also use our own radiotelescope at the observatory to complement the Odin observations with observations of other molecuels. Then I mostly work with reducing and analysing the data, and finally I write scientific articles that can be published.
To do research means a lot of freedom and many advantages, for example we have many international contacts. I have been in Paris to work with our Odin-collaborators. I have also travelled a lot, for example to a conference in California, USA, and to summer schools in France, Austria and in the Canary Islands. Next year I will go to Hong Kong, China, with a few colleagues! But research also means a lot of responsibility and very hard work - sometimes around the clock! And many times it feels that even if I work very hard I get no results! It can be bad weather during ground observations, difficulties in analysing the data, no-one to ask for advice when I have problems etc. But even during these times I am very happy that I have been given this opportunity to do research! There is nothing else I would rather do. It is the quest for knowledge and "truth" that always is the reward and driving force.
My spare time is mainly occupied of my kids which now have become 11-17 years old! And - I have also very recently moved together with my boyfriend. We have just bought a house which we will need to devote some time to to redecorate. My boyfriend also has a child so now we are suddenly seven people in our family!
School:
Rymdgymnasiet Kiruna, Sweden