Petr Liška is a mechanical engineer. But the world he works in is almost unimaginably small: he studies materials so thin they are only a few atoms thick, exploring how they can manipulate light through quantum phenomena that continue to work even at room temperature. The vision behind his research sounds almost futuristic, creating an electrically controllable optical component thinner than a strand of human hair by a factor of one hundred thousand. Originally from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Brno University of Technology, Petr is currently spending the academic year at Stanford University in California as a Fulbright Visiting Student. Yet this story is not only about cutting-edge science. It is also about moving across the world with a wife and a newborn daughter, adjusting to life under the Californian sun, discovering how everyday kindness can shape one’s state of mind, and perhaps unexpectedly realizing what people back home in the Czech Republic often take for grante...
Jaké je to být Fulbrighterem. What it is like to be a Fulbrighter.