Monika Rolinska

What inspired you to pursue this research topic, and how has your understanding of it evolved throughout your PhD journey?

I became interested in advanced materials characterisation techniques during my master’s thesis at @swerim. There were not many R&D positions open at the time due to the Covid pandemic and when the opportunity arose to do a PhD in nucleation and phase transformations I thought it sounded quite fun. The project has included use of multiple neutron scattering techniques alongside extensive training, and I have learned a lot both theoretically and practically about experimental design and conducting experiments. Relating to the topic, I’ve enjoyed working with stainless steels and I have also liked the multiscale approach to try to understand the relation between atomic and nanoscale structural changes which have an effect on macroscopic properties such as hardness.

Can you describe a key finding or insight from your research that you’re especially proud of - and why it matters in your field?

I’m quite happy with deep diving into the experimental methods used; we adapted the small-angle neutron scattering data fitting approach to include interface effects so it could be used in very early stages of phase separation, previously inaccessible with other methods, and we also examined the effect of texture on pair distribution function analysis of total scattering data - this has previously been largely overlooked but is quite relevant for engineering materials.

How do you hope your research will be used or built upon after your defense - whether in academia, industry, or society at large?

I hope the insights about different heat treatment strategies can be incorporated in industry to prolong the lifetime of components in service. I also hope that the contribution to the characterisation techniques could help further research on this topic.

What role has SwedNess played in your journey?

Not only has the SwedNess school given me fantastic opportunities in terms of training and courses, but also through the encouragement for international collaborations and the extended stay which really accelerated my learning. Besides this, SwedNess has also given me friends for life; I’m very grateful for my “neutron besties” and look forward to following their careers, whether in neutrons or somewhere else.

Thesis: Neutron Scattering-Based Characterisation of Early-Stage Phase Transformations: Applied to Duplex Stainless Steels and Related Systems