Lucia Kayserova (Slovak Republic)
| Hello my name is Lucia! I come from the Slovak Republic and I'm doing a PhD at EMBL. |
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Doctor, librarian, diplomat, translator, IT engineer (!), economist - all these are careers I fairly seriously considered when I was at high school. I was the type of a student who liked all the subjects equally and could imagine majoring in any of them at the university. It was only in the very last few months of my senior year that I got the idea to do study science. What an idea when I now look back! Yes, I liked biology and chemistry (well, a bit), but I had never known a real scientist by then. I just imagined them as older, serious men with grey hair, thick spectacles, a bit weird and foolish, isolated from the outside world. I could hardly be more wrong!
At the university, all my professors were younger than my parents. They were not only amazing and devoted teachers, but excellent companions as well. You could always have a drink with them in the student bar; they would organise informal meetings for the students and also bring their families to the university events. Very similarly it looks in the lab where I am doing my PhD now. My group leader is a young, dynamic woman, the exact opposite to my image of a scientist from high school times. And thanks to my wonderful colleagues the atmosphere in the lab is just great. We all come from different countries and often have lively long discussions over lunch or drink.
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Lucia Kayserova
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My work has mainly to do with the flies, more specifically the fruit flies - the tiny little creatures appearing on the fruit if you leave it on the table for a longer time. Even though the fruit flies have been used in biological sciences, mainly genetics and development, for hundred years, there is still so much unknown about them! The beauty and the difficulty of science at the same time is that when you find an answer to a given question, a myriad of new questions appears. So instead of being closer to solving an issue, you discover new levels of complexity. No wonder that you get completely bewitched by science so easily!
I also have the possibility of doing many other things and activities. In my case, these are hard rock music (especially when it's live), mountain biking, skiing, swimming and traveling (of which you get to do a lot in science). When I go back in thoughts to my high school, I clearly see my favourite biology teacher telling me not to choose science, as it is nothing for women. And I have never been more grateful for my stubbornness than in this case.