My About Me

My high school was the Belarusian State University Lyceum - a special school for talented youth. I was a chemical-biological profile student and graduated with a “golden” school certificate. It’s a funny thing - they still issue them, in Belarus. The BSU Lyceum is a unique place, and I intentionally start describing my academic journey with it. It’s a one-of-a-kind school cultivating open-mindedness and interdisciplinarity; it set the foundation for my emergence.

I participated in many high school contests, both city- and republic-wide, winning medals, as it is something that a “good” student is encouraged to do in the realities of modern Belarus.?Some of them I didn't like though - they distracted me from learning things.

As I had to prepare for the competitions, I attended extra classes organized by Belarussian State University Biological Faculty. Those were mostly private lessons with the leading professors of the faculty, and I benefited from them a lot. Mostly we focused on biochemistry, selected fragments of plant biotechnology, and general chemistry there.

My next step was the pre-university preparation course (specialization in chemistry and biology) in ?ód?, Poland. In order to get there without the ability to pay for my studies (as I was an orphan), I had to learn the Polish language to C1 level in half a year and apply for an Excellence scholarship. My studies in ?ód? gave me a very strong base for all my later university courses.

Afterward, I won a Czech Republic Ministry of Education grant for university studies. During a language year, I participated in a Correspondence Seminar Inspired by Chemical Topics KSICHT; https://ksicht.natur.cuni.cz I took a prize-winning place, and got accepted to Charles University entry exams free. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Medicinal Chemistry in 2021 with a GPA of 4 (A).

If there’s something like a pure humane gratitude, then I’m the embodiment of it, as I’m so thankful for this scholarship to the Czech Ministry of Education (and especially the direct executor, the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research, https://www.dzs.cz/en).

I remember myself as a frightened and hungry very young person, just having crossed the borders of Czech Republic on a cheap bus. Where to go and what to do, when you’re a 19 year old orphan, alone in Europe, running away from a dark land full of post-soviet injustice? And what you want is not just survival; your dream is to study…

And they meet you at the railway station, kind foreign people in branded light jackets speaking unknown language, smiling, gesticulating as they explain things. They give you a bottle of water and a chocolate waffle, and help with the documents, and walk you to the toy-like blue train to go to the thermal baths town where they are going to take care of you (among a bunch of other “young rescues”) and your studies.

During my bachelor's studies, I got invited to work in a solid-state chemistry and novel materials laboratory (https://vaclavtyrpekl.wixsite.com/website/group-of-dr-tyrpekl) as a scientific adjunct. My work in Dr. Tyrpekl's group taught me a lot; not only did I gain multi-faceted laboratory work experience, but also learnt important things regarding data treatment, personal effectiveness, and other professional skills. My professor conveyed a lot of his knowledge to me as I worked under his supervision and as we participated in different scientific events, visited different laboratories. My interest became predominantly focused on radiopharmaceuticals and nuclear chemistry applications, and an important activity was my involvement in the collaboration with the Institute of Nuclear Research in Rez, Czech Republic (https://www.ujv.cz/en). I participated in the R&D projects connected with therapeutic and diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals based on radionuclides produced in reactors and cyclotrons. The techniques of the antibody and protein labelling by radionuclides were something I have also learned.

During that period, I also got accredited in scientific writing, oral presentations, and science communication.

My bachelor thesis was published as an article in ACS Omega https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.2c00763#

After achieving my bachelor’s degree, I continued studying to pursue the Master’s. I continued the research work as a part of my professor’s group, mostly focusing on solid state chemistry and nuclear materials. Some of the scientific activities (scanning electron microscopy, high temperature rtg diffraction studies, computational chemistry, etc) were arranged for me in the framework of collaboration between Charles university and Czech Academy of Science https://www.avcr.cz/

In winter of the year 2021, I was accepted as an intern in the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK CEN, Mol, Belgium. I worked there on my master thesis for the most part of the summer semester 2022. In July 2022 I participated in international conference Ceramics in Europe in Krakow https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RVlf1Y769SIeUGqCw2IyfGltH6Eo1-dI/view?usp=drivesdk , participating in discussions and presenting a poster.

In December 2022 I got chosen for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme by International Atomic Energy Agency.

Sounds like I’m a buzzkill nerd? Well, I do read advanced molecular biology for a bit of light reading at nights, just like Hermione Granger did. However, it’s just one hypostasis. Among others. I’m a demon who dances on heels, does fencing, does modelling - alternating though, of course, so no worries ??.