On the challenges of biophysics, with researcher and Professor Ana-Nicoleta Bondar, the guest of a new edition of “microSCOPE: UB researcher at the microphone”

 Researcher Ana-Nicoleta Bondar, PhD, professor at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Bucharest and ambassador of the Biophysical Society, will tell us more, in episode 9 of the series “microSCOPE: UB researcher at the microphone”, about the challenges of biophysics and the mission she has undertaken as ambassador of the Biophysical Society in the United States.

At the same time, professor Ana-Nicoleta Bondar will guide us through the complex professional and academic pathway she has followed, highlighting the manner in which the professors she had, since primary school to doctoral level, inspired her with continual fascination and passion for physics, which is what she is now trying to do with the young people she has taught and is now teaching.

The 9^th episode of “microSCOPE: UB researcher at the microphone” is available here.

Asked how she would explain her research enterprises to a person with little knowledge on physics, professor Ana-Nicoleta Bondar modestly says that she can only hope that the things she does will at some point be implemented in the pharmaceutical field or in other interface fields related to materials science and life sciences, by contributing to the development of new medicine, for instance.

Having had rigorous training, which includes studies and professional experience at prestigious education and research institutions in Romania and abroad, Ana Nicoleta Bondar is today professor at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Bucharest, and her goal is to pass on to her students her own passion towards science and awaken their interest in the fields she has specialized.

In this sense, she is constantly updating her classes and her manner of teaching, introducing research elements in her courses, she encourages team working, shared activities and discussion in an interactive teaching method.

As ambassador of the Biophysical Society in US, her mission is to promote science and education in biophysics. Her objective is to guide students interested in biophysics, and to enable them to interact with colleagues in Romania as well as others abroad, helping them integrate in international research teams. At the same time, with the support of the University of Bucharest, she aims to create a summer school in the field of life sciences, as well as to create a prize dedicated to the best theses in these research areas.

Ana-Nicoleta Bondar has shared her current research priorities and other interesting themes in the 9th episode of “microSCOP: UB researcher at the microphone”.

Professor Ana Nicoleta Bondar, PhD, is teaching staff and researcher at the Department for Electricity, Solid Physics and Biophysics at UB’s Faculty of Physics. She is also visiting scientist at the Institute for Computational Biomedicine within Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. As mentioned before, she is currently ambassador of the Biophysical Society for Romania.

Her main interest topics include biophysics and computational biomedicine. She obtained her PhD at Heidelberg University with a doctoral thesis on quantic studies, more precisely a combination between quantic mechanics and classic mechanic applied on proton transporters. Currently, her research priorities are centered on applying theoretical biophysics in understanding the mechanisms of complex protein. More information about the biography and the main works and studies of researcher Ana-Nicoleta Bondar are available here, here, here and here. 

Part of the Science Communication program developed by the University of Bucharest, the “microSCOPE: UB researcher at the microphone” series aims to present, in a concise and dynamic manner, information on the concrete results of notable research initiatives within UB.

Through its objectives and format, microSCOPE completes UB’s Science Communication Programe, which also includes the UB conferences – Science for everyone’s understanding and UB Science Dose.

The series promotes those research projects which, through the major contribution to the field they belong to, have come to benefit from international recognition, thus encouraging the connection between UB and various foreign universities and research institutions abroad.

The microSCOPE, whose guests are primarily researchers from UB awarded for their research results, aims to contribute to informing the Romanian academic milieu, but also other categories of interested public on the main research projects carried out within UB, thus stimulating the development of future collaborative initiatives.