Neutron Sciences 2008 Annual Report - 17.79 MB - Spallation ...

USER PROGRAM 2008 ANNUAL REPORT
Each instrument at HFIR and the SNS is managed by a scientist in the Neutron Sciences organization. The scientific teams we had the pleasure to work with included Ken Littrell
and Yuri Melnichenko at HFIR’s GP-SANS beam line and John Ankner, Jim Browning, and Candice Halbert at the SNS Liquids Reflectometer. They provided outstanding support that
contributed to the success of our work. Helpful advice from Greg Smith facilitated effective navigation of the proposal system.”
A native of Israel, Perahia grew up in Rehovot, home of the distinguished Weizmann Institute of Science. This international center of scientific research and graduate studies triggered
her imagination at a very early age.
“My parents took with a stride one of my first experiments–disassembling our most precious radio to find the ‘people’ with whom 38,000 were talking,” she recalls. Her educational
environment placed a significant emphasis on science teaching. “I was fortunate to participate in the Weizmann Institute’s mathematics outreach program as early as the third grade,”
she says. “Later on, our high school chemistry teacher inspired most of our class to choose science as our career path.”
Perahia received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She then returned to her home town to earn a graduate degree in chemistry at the
Weizmann Institute of Science, fulfilling a childhood dream. Perahia’s postdoctoral advisers, Sunnil Sinha, currently at the University of California at San Diego, and John Huang, a
former Exxon Research and Engineering Laboratory scientist like Perahia, introduced her to the unique contributions of neutron scattering to the understanding of materials.
She admits that being a woman in science is not always easy. “It certainly was a challenge to carry out my doctorate studies with two young children” she says. “I would have never
made it without a very supportive husband.” Among obstacles to surmount has been both open and disguised prejudice regarding women in science. “Education and focusing on scientific
goals are the keys to overcoming these challenges,” she observes.
Perahia plans to continue her scientific research. “At some stage, I would like to incorporate a science management component in my work,” Perahia says. She is looking forward to
returning to ORNL to carry out more experiments with her graduate students.
ORNL NEUTRON SCIENCES The Next Generation of Materials Research
75
USER PROGRAM