Women in Research #LINO75: Mariya Pravdivtseva

Mariya from Russia is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Section Biomedical Imaging at the Department of Radiology and Neuroradiology at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University, Germany.

Her research aims to improve the treatment of vascular pathologies, primarily intracranial aneurysms. She contributes to understanding the pathology itself, as well as to the development and evaluation of new treatment strategies using MRI, X-ray, and 3D printing.

Mariya participates in the 75^th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (#LINO75 – Interdisciplinary).

Enjoy the interview with Mariya and get inspired:

What inspired you to pursue a career in science / in your discipline?

Before studying at the university, I attended a boarding school for one year — I received an invitation to enroll there after a math competition. The school was far from my hometown, about 3,000 km away. I was living in a place full of scientists called Akademgorodok. Some of our teachers were also active scientists. Akademgorodok is home to various research centers, located across the street from one another to promote collaboration. There was a spirit of science in that school; we often went on excursions to the research institutes, and it was so exciting to live in an atmosphere of discovery. Before attending that boarding school, I could not imagine myself becoming a scientist. After getting there, I could not imagine myself as anything else.

After school, I went to university to study physics. I wanted to be a scientist, but I also knew I wanted to see the results of my work in the near future. I wanted to do something that would help people, the way medical doctors do. I couldn’t imagine myself being a doctor, but I realized I could do something that would help doctors, and through them, help people. That’s how I saw physics! It is impossible to think about modern medicine without thinking of MRI or X-ray, and those are fundamentally based on physics. So here I am now, working in a university hospital at the edge of medicine, engineering, and physics, improving the treatment of vascular pathologies.

Who are your role models?

I don’t have one person who is my role model in all aspects. Different qualities inspire me in different people. And most importantly, my role models grow with me.

In school, I had classmates who could solve complex physics problems elegantly within minutes, while I would need to spend a few hours. I wanted to be the same. At university, I was inspired by how my mathematics and quantum mechanics lecturers gave their lectures — writing with chalk on a big blackboard, holding the audience, confidently describing incredibly complex ideas. I wanted to have that ability too.

Now I am inspired by my boss, a medical doctor, the clinic’s director, and a scientist. He has so many ideas with the potential to transform medicine. I also want to be as calm as he is in important meetings, to spread confidence and knowledge the way he does.

My husband is also one of my role models. He is a couple of years older than me and has already been appointed professor. He is a supportive and knowledgeable leader, capable of working successfully with very different people.

How did you get to where you are in your career path?

I was born in a small settlement, Kokuy, in the far east of Russia — my hometown is closer to Beijing than to Moscow.

I loved studying, especially mathematics. I participated in math competitions at different levels: first within my school, then at the district level, and then at the regional level. I finished second in my age group at the regional competition and was invited to a mathematics and physics boarding school. It was exciting to leave home at 16 and live with other teenagers in a big city. I am very grateful to my parents, who trusted me and allowed me to study there.

That school influenced me enormously. I hadn’t known that becoming a scientist was an achievable profession for someone like me. But during that year, I met many scientists, and they were all normal people — curious, passionate, but ordinary in the best sense. I had a feeling I could do something similar.

After school, I enrolled at Novosibirsk State University, majoring in physics, and later specialized in biomedical and chemical physics. I worked as a research assistant at the International Tomography Center, studying the effects of chronic toxic exposure and potential treatments on the brains and livers of rats. It was meaningful, medically relevant work, exactly what I wanted. Thank you to my advisor back then for finding a topic that matched my interests. wanted. But I quickly realized I don’t want to work with animals. Animal trials are necessary, but having to end their lives at the end of the experimental phase was something I couldn’t do.

So I looked for something different. I found a PhD position at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on a medical topic (aneurysm treatment) with no animal use. The work involved in vitro experiments using 3D-printed vascular replicas. It was a perfect match.

I moved to Germany, completed my PhD, and defended it at the Faculty of Engineering of Kiel University. During my PhD, I developed a protocol to fabricate patient-specific aneurysm models for developing new imaging protocols, improving the diagnosis of vascular pathologies, testing treatment efficacy, and training medical personnel to perform treatment. I have continued as a postdoctoral researcher in the same department. I love it here.

Regarding challenges, the most persistent is whether I am in the right place. I love what I do, but no one in my family has been a researcher, and it is difficult for my parents to understand it. When I was studying physics, there were about 100 boys and only about 20 girls in the course. It is easy to feel out of place, especially when some lecturers suggest that women study physics to find a husband. I do not worry about this anymore, but at the university, it was painful to hear that. Also, living in another country is somewhat challenging. But I am choosing to stay here and build my life because I want to do research embedded in a university hospital. That opportunity does not exist in the same form in my home country.

What is the coolest project you have worked on and why?

I was studying the treatment effect of one of the implants on an aneurysm, and I am very proud of this study. It was the first study in which I served as the senior author. I work alongside a medical doctor who treated my aneurysm models (placed the devices inside of them in the same way as he would treat a patient). The study addresses clinical questions comprehensively and brings together computational fluid dynamics, micro-CT, 3D printing, and MRI — it is like a culmination of everything I learned and did during my PhD. This study also opened a new chapter for me in computational fluid dynamics and modeling, which I now want to pursue alongside my experimental work.

What’s a time you felt immense pride in yourself / your work?

I am really proud when the results of my research are used in medicine. For example, I am proud of the protocol I developed during my PhD for fabricating patient-specific aneurysm models. Those models are now being used by medical doctors from our department to teach other doctors how to treat aneurysms. Colleagues from other hospitals come several times a year to learn from them, and my models are there to assist their learning. I also feel great pride when my students develop and grow. I am very proud when I can help them unlock their potential.

What is a “day in the life” of you like?

I have two children — one is six months old, and the other is three years old. My current routine is not very representative of what it will look like in a few months, so I will describe a typical day from about a year ago.

I would usually wake up early, around 5:30 or 6:00. My husband and child would still be sleeping, and I would use that quiet time for focused work — usually writing, either a paper or a grant application. Then my husband would make breakfast, and I would spend some time playing with our son before everyone left for work. My husband would drop our child off at kindergarten, and I would be in the office by around 9:00, usually before anyone else arrived, using that time for another focused block of work.

I try not to schedule meetings before 10:00, so I have time to prepare or concentrate. I had two longer days when I worked until 17:00, and shorter days when I finished at 14:00 to pick up my child from kindergarten. On the longer days, I would plan experiments or work in the lab in the afternoon. I tried to cluster meetings on two or three mornings per week, which gave me two clear days for deep, uninterrupted work. After work, I would play with my son, cook, or do some sport. I tend to go to bed early — most evenings, I am under the blanket by 21:00.

I am blessed to share childcare and household responsibilities equally with my husband.

Mariya works at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University

What are you seeking to accomplish in your career?

I would love to make an impact on the world. I don’t yet have one single clear scientific question that defines my path. I am still exploring and trying different directions. I will likely remain in the field of vascular pathology; I find how our blood circulation works truly fascinating. But the specific pathology, the methods I use to study it, or the treatments I will contribute to developing — all of that may evolve.

What I know for sure is that I would love to lead my own independent research group and grow into a leader who can empower the next generation of scientists.

What do you like to do when you’re not doing research?

Right now, outside of work, most of my time goes to my children and keeping the household running. But soon I will have a little more time, and I look forward to returning to other things I love.

I really enjoy dancing. I have tried many styles, including partner dances like Tango, Lindy Hop, Disco Fox, and Brazilian Zouk, as well as group styles like Contemporary, High Heels, Dancehall, and Hip-Hop. I love moving to music. I also enjoy singing and photography.

What advice do you have for other women interested in science / in your discipline?

Always seek out information yourself about what is possible; it never hurts to ask. Ask your supervisor whether it is possible to extend your contract so you can finish your PhD without unnecessary stress. Ask colleagues for help if your supervisor is not responsive. Just ask, sometimes things are far easier to obtain than we imagine.

And if you want to start a family, please do not wait until you have a professorship. The decision of whether to have children cannot and should not depend on career milestones. Yes, doing research with children is more demanding, but it is absolutely possible, and you end up focusing more on what truly matters.

In your opinion, what will be the next great breakthrough in science / in your discipline?

I believe it will be in silico trials for implants. In silico trials are digital equivalents of traditional trials, conducted using virtual patient cohorts. They allow extensive testing before fabrication and can simulate extreme conditions or the conditions of underrepresented patient subgroups. I believe they will significantly reduce the need for animal and human trials.

Pharmacological treatment is already being explored extensively through in silico trials. Implants, however, are still mostly developed the traditional way — design, limited computational testing, manufacturing, in vitro testing, animal trials, and finally human trials. The design idea can be rejected at any stage, requiring the whole process to restart. Extensive in silico trials could allow researchers to identify better implants before fabrication, reducing the number of costly iterations and late-stage rejections. I want to contribute to the creation of in silico trials for vascular pathologies. I also believe that we can use in silico trials to approve patient-specific treatment strategies.

What should be done to increase the number of female scientists and professors?

Much of the conversation focuses on the so-called glass ceiling, the barriers that make it difficult for women to reach senior positions. That barrier is likely real. But I think we also need to address what happens much earlier: simply, fewer girls choose to study physics and engineering in the first place. In my university course, there were about 20 girls and 100 boys (the proportions have likely changed already), so if fewer girls are studying physics or engineering, it is not surprising that there are fewer female professors later on.

Showing girls at school that a career in science, particularly physics or engineering, is a path genuinely open to them could increase the number who choose these subjects. Over time, that would naturally produce more female professors. At the PhD and postdoc level, dedicated mentoring programs and funding schemes for female researchers make a real difference; I have benefited from both personally. But first, the girls need to choose studying physics and engineering; the visibility of female researchers might help.