Women in Science: the excellent scientist Saša Bajt

To enable PETRA IV to have particularly brilliant and focused X-ray beams, state-of-the-art optics are required in the ring and at the beamlines. Some of the trickiest solutions have been made possible by DESY researcher Saša Bajt and her team: Among other things, they developed a new generation of X-ray lenses for X-ray microscopes that will enable multidimensional investigations in tiniest dimensions. With these X-ray lenses, the X-rays at PETRA IV can be focused down to the nanometer range. A nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter.

Saša Bajt is highly regarded in the international scientific community. She is a Fellow of Optica, the international optical society, and has received several awards for her outstanding research:

•  For example, she holds the title of Ambassador of Science of the Republic of    Slovenia. The title is one of the highest national awards of the Republic of Slovenia.
• She is the 1st prize winner of the DESY Innovation Award.

Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in research and development in Germany. This is particularly true at the higher career levels. Women like Saša Bajt are an important role model, especially for young female scientists.

This is one reason why Bajt is involved in DESY's social media campaign for the International Day of Girls and Women in Science:

On Instagram: @follow.desy

and on Twitter: @desynews 

Saša Bajt:

The Slovenian-born physicist heads the X-ray Optics for Extreme Conditions group in the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY and is also a Principal Investigator in the Custer of Excellence (CUI) at the University of Hamburg.

Further information about her research you can find at DESY-News: