The power to change things.

In this presentation I shall relate my journey in physics and my experiences as a woman in various leadership positions as leader of a research project, guiding a learned society or assuming important responsibilities in university management. I shall discuss the challenges and opportunities of taking the power to change things, as well as illustrate measures to promote more inclusive and equitable scientific environments.

Petra Rudolf holds the chair of Experimental Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She specializes in electron spectroscopies, also employing synchrotron light. Her principal research interests lie in the areas of 2D solids, molecular motors, organic thin films and inorganic-organic hybrids. Petra Rudolf has served as Dean of Graduate Studies University of Groningen, as president of the European Physical Society and has been strongly engaged in promoting women in science. She was elected member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering, honorary member of the Italian and the Dutch Physical Societies, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and Fellow of the American Physical Society. For her work on molecular motors, she received the 2007 Descartes Prize of the European Commission. In 2013 she was appointed officer of the Order of Oranje Nassau by H.M. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.