Our Plasmonics employees’ presentations continue with Sirkku Valkama stepping in the spotlight.
Sirkku has always been intrigued by science and math. Today she is able to include both elements in her work. At Plasmonics Oy she works as a Chemist. She holds a Master’s degree in Science (Tech.) and her major was chemistry and minors were materials technology and mathematics.
When Sirkku was looking for a job after graduation, she was hoping to find a place where she could do research work that is closely connected to practical applications, and this is possible at Plasmonics. She started to work for Plasmonics in March 2021. A friend of hers saw an open position ad on the university’s board and thought that Sirkku should apply. She did and was employed. Today her working week is a mixture of remote research work from home and wearing a chemist’s coat in the laboratory mixing liquids and carrying out experiments.
When it comes to FOTONIT® she is responsible for studying and creating new testing methods around the coating itself. Sirkku is also one of the people making FOTONIT®. In addition to these tasks, she participates in other projects. “One of the best aspects of working at Plasmonics is that you get to do various things”, she says.
“We at Plasmonics have a lot of ideas for future projects”, Sirkku says and continues “there is room for growth and development. With hard work, and hopefully funding, the company has great potential to scale up and continue to grow”.
When asked if she is in the job that she dreamed of as a child, she stops to think for a while and says she is. Even as a child she was little bit of a researcher. And now as an adult, she still likes to learn and create something new. Developing products that can help people or nature in some way, is what she has wanted to do. As long as she can research and explore, she is at her best.
In her freetime Sirkku dives not only in the water but also in the world of computer games. And to balance the latter, she enjoys reading both science related publications and novels. Needless to say, she masters “anything strategic that requires quick thinking”. She also loves puzzles. When she wants to do something more creative, she dabbles in video and image editing, writing short stories and crafting pieces of jewellery, mostly earrings.
