Meet Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova, a professor of Physics at Texas A&M University who is also quickly becoming a TikTok star—her latest TikTok has 1.9 million views already! According to her Texas A&M University bio, she received a Ph.D. in Physics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1999, and joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 2001. Her bio continues:
She organizes annual Physics & Engineering Festivals attended by thousands of visitors. She developed the Physics Show, an interactive presentation involving physics demonstrations and hands-on exhibits, attended by more than 28,000 people since 2007. In 2012, she started the innovative program Discover, Explorer, and Enjoy Physics & Engineering (DEEP), which engages students in hands-on teamwork and outreach activities. She is a co-organizer of the Mitchell Institute Physics Enhancement Program (MIPEP), which includes annual summer boarding schools for physics teachers from Texas high schools.
After watching some of her videos on the "official TikTok of #TAMU Physics & Astronomy," it's easy to see why she's had so much success with live interactive physics presentations and workshops for students and teachers. She is absolutely engaging, with her Russian accent, her infectious laugh, her incredibly charming and nerdy sense of humor, and her ABSOLUTE ENTHUSIASM about physics.
Watch her demonstrate Bernoulli's principle with levitating balls! Watch her demonstrate atmospheric pressure with a newspaper and a ruler! Or, in her most viewed video—it has 17.8 million views!—watch her demonstrate inertia using a potato, a knife, and a hammer! And if you try these experiments at home, please heed her safety warnings—"Now, safety issue. When you decide to remove this potato from the knife, don't touch the knife blade with your fingers!"