Girls account for only a quarter of U.S. graduates who earn bachelor’s degrees in physics, according to the American Physical Society, a Maryland-primarily based nonprofit organization. But Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova, a physics professor at Texas A&M University, is seeking to adjust that with the support of social media.
Videos of her experiments have ignited people’s curiosity on TikTok, drawing tens of millions of views more than the final two years.
“You can’t clarify a great deal in these quick clips, but … you can inspire,” she stated.
Afiya Dhanani attended Texas A&M University right after watching Erukhimova’s physics experiments on the web.
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“Watching Dr. Tatiana do the experiments on the web, specially considering that she was a female leader, was much more inspiring for me to even go into physics,” Dhanani stated.
Erukhimova’s journey started thousands of miles away, about six hours northeast of Moscow, prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union. She grew up with two physicists as parents and later married a physicist, Alexey. They relocated to College Station, Texas, exactly where they serve as educators.
“I did not really feel property. But you make it property,” Erukhimova stated.
When she is not teaching, Erukhimova is involved in outreach. In 2021, she was involved in a study that integrated ten,000 students, physicists and other folks in the sciences. The study revealed that males are not much more suited for physics than females — a message she makes use of to this day.
“We collected midterm exams, final exams, final scores, final grade grades more than ten years. There was no constant distinction among a male and female overall performance on these exam scores. And I felt that this was a extremely critical message for my students,” Erukhimova stated.
Former student Nicole Cirigioni praised Erukhimova’s enthusiasm and dedication to teaching, saying, “You can inform when a teacher desires to be someplace else. But when you stroll into Dr. Tatiana’s classroom, you can inform she desires you to be there. She cares and desires you to find out, which tends to make you want to find out, also.”
Up subsequent for Erukhimova is the “Physics and Engineering Festival” at A&M in April, an occasion that draws in thousands of folks to campus each year. This festival is open to everybody, and according to Erukhimova, you never have to have to be a scientist to celebrate science, just like you never have to have to be a musician to attend a music festival.
Former student Callie Rethman stated Erukhimova “normally desires every thing to be like a celebration of science.”
“And I believe that her videos going viral have seriously brought that celebration everywhere,” she stated.