Rohini Godbole - Session 05, 2023-04-13

In this interview, Rohini Godbole discusses the importance of appreciation and encouragement from peers and mentors for professional growth. She goes into details of her work and collaborations in the University of Dortmund, involvement in collider physics. She recollects meeting her husband, the challenges of navigating marriage, personal and professional life in academia. She delves into discussing the beginnings of her interests in supersymmetry and close contact with experimental physics. Godbole also talks about the continuity in the different areas of her work, her collaborators, and international travels for work. She also discusses her various roles, positions and being a member in different organisations. In addition to that, she mentions the conferences she organised and presented in, alone and with her collaborators. She talks about how her life streamlined to mostly doing physics in IISc, as compared to her life in Bombay where she was involved in more cultural and social activities. Godbole discusses the disparity in research funding in different institutes in the country, the differences in teaching students University of Bombay and IISc.

(00:00:00) Importance of appreciation of efforts from scientific circles in professional growth. Blurring of personal, social and professional life as a scientist. Family and friends’ support

(00:04:37) Reduction in involvement in social causes and cultural events upon moving to Bombay University [Archivist’s note: it is now University of Mumbai]. Difficulty in finding accommodation for 3 years as a young woman scientist

(00:07:49) Not being stressed about lack of accommodation as work was rewarding. Importance of being respected and recognized in making one confident

(00:12:22) Importance of support like housing in doing good science (00:13:15) Abbas A. Rangwala’s encouragement in Goldbole’s scientific career; push for University of Dortmund

(00:15:34) Work done during two years at University of Dortmund – Nucleon structure functions, Quantum Chromodynamics, Higgs Boson and Higgs Decays. Involvement in CERN super collider, and the future phenomenology of e-p collider HERA at DESY, Germany [Archivist’s note: CERN- European Organization for Nuclear Research, HERA- Hadron–Electron Ring Accelerator. DESY- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron]

(00:18:16) International networks, meetings, workshops: Meetings at DESY, US Snowmass Meetings. University of Wisconsin, Madison’s pheno Workshops

[Archivist’s note- pheno refers to phenomenology]

(00:19:27) Scientifically significant years: research focus in Dortmund, collaborations. Associateship in The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), work on supersymmetry, string theory, and working with various scientists there (00:26:41) Meeting her husband – Marek Nowakowski at Dortmund, getting married, navigating personal life in academia. Enjoying teaching at University of Bombay (00:29:48) Being married to a person in the same in academia. Discussions on marriage, parents accepting relationship. Learning about immigrant Polish community in Germany because of her marriage (00:35:52) Navigating long-distance marriage and scientific careers (00:40:25) Differences between Central Institutes and Universities. Intermingling of professional and social life. Moving from University of Bombay to Indian Institute of Science. Flexibility in Bombay

(00:43:50) Difficulty in finding positions in the same city or institute as a married couple. Separation and divorce. Women juggling marriage and science, hurdles faced by scientist-couples [00:49:57-00:50:04 - Restricted Access. Contact archives@ncbs.res.in for details]

(00:53:46) Research in Frascati; collaborations with Giulia Pancheri and Probir Roy

[Archivist’s note: PETRA – Positron-Electron Tandem Ring Accelerator located at DESY Mark II Detector was an experimental detector used at the SLAC Linear Collider at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in California, USA LEP – Large Electron–Positron Collider, Geneva]

(00:56:58) Steven Weinberg’s influential paper on supersymmetry. Learning about supersymmetry and supergravity in Stony Brook, USA from Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, Daniel Z. Freedman.

(00:58:44) Godbole working on supersymmetry with Probir Roy in Austin. Godbole’s first paper on supersymmetry with Xerxes Tata, Manuel Drees, Amitabh Datta.

(01:02:32) Focus of work in IISc. Work with Manuel Drees and D. P. Roy; collider designs

(01:08:01) Role in Linear Collider Advisory Committee and international workshops

(01:10:49) Traveling in summers after divorce to CERN; collaborative projects with CEFIPRA; disparities in research funding

[Archivist’s Note: CEFIPRA – Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research, also called IFCPAR]

[01:18:17-01:19:57 - Archivist’s Note - break or interruption]

(01:19:58) CEFIPRA sowed seeds of many interactive and collaborative projects with France. Resources in TIFR, Bombay University and IISc. Linear Collider workshops

(01:21:59) Long term collaboration with scientists Genevieve Belangér, Fawzi Boudjema and Abdelhak Djouadi. Indo-French project with Genevieve Belangér, with Manimala Mitra as the Principal Investigator (01:24:02) Being a member of the Commission of High Energy Physics, feeling like arriving at the global scene, contributing to CERN by writing a strategy report with Georg Weiglein and Frank Simon (01:27:44) NSF-funded collaborations with Indian and US physicists on high-energy phenomenology

(1:32:48) Teaching experiences: Differences between Bombay University and IISc students; ease in bonding with students at IISc (1:35:52) Cycling in and around IISc and Malleshwaram market – for work and chores (1:37:12) Teaching and bonding with students helped get on with life amid the strained marriage

(1:41:04) Brief mention of involvement with Indian Academy of Sciences’ panel on Women in Science.