Profile
Maria Pawlowska
thanks for all your questions in the chat sessions and others you've sent!
My CV
-
Education:
Copernicus High School in Warsaw 2000-2004
-
Qualifications:
University of Bristol 2004-2007, University of Cambridge 2007-present
-
Work History:
I’ve taught classes – no ‘real world’ jobs yet
-
Current Job:
PhD Student
-
Read more
I’m a third year PhD student at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. In my day “job” I look at the microfossils and chemistry of some of the oldest rocks still present on the Earth’s surface and I use them to try to decipher how life evolved on Earth. I study the remains of organisms and use chemical proxies to get as full a picture of ancient life on Earth as possible. If we can understand the environment in which complex (and in my lingo complex means more than a few cells) organisms evolved and how they interacted with their surroundings we can come that much closer to finding out, where biologically speaking we ultimately came from. Outside of my department I’m a fan of musicals, books, baking and traveling. I’m also very passionate about women’s rights and the environment and I volunteer with the Global Poverty Project to help raise awareness of means of tackling extreme poverty and improving maternal health.
-
My Typical Day:
I read, analyze new data, spend time in the lab producing new data and try to write it up.
-
Read more
My days always start with me reading the news and checking my emails and sometime this lasts just a bit longer than it should… I then read the tables of contents of all the major scientific journals and those specific to my field to make sure I’m up to speed on the latest developments. If it’s a lab day I will spend most of it boiling nasty acids to try to get sulphur compounds out of billion year old rocks; or looking at tiny, less than half a millimeter long fossils trying to get them to tell me what life form they’re most related to. If it’s an office day I will be sat in front of my computer writing articles and writing-up my thesis. On bad days when I can’t seem to get anything right all I’ll do after work is cook food, read or watch a Woody Allen movie. When my lab chemistry goes wrong I bake – I feel it’s chemistry I tend to get right so I find it comforting. But there are a lot of good days when I love science and feel like I’m doing my bit so that we can learn more about the Earth. On good days like those I don’t just want to go home so after 6pm you’re most likely to find me out with friends, in the movies, cafes or at a college bar.
-
What I'd do with the prize money:
I’d like to print a little booklet on the Precambrian – show young people what the Earth looked like when it was much younger.
-
My Interview
-
How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
curious, talkative, friendly
Were you ever in trouble at school?
yes..art class and music actually…
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Ok…recently it will have to be the Glee Cast
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
a happy family, inspiring job, no loans to payback
Tell us a joke.
sorry but it will have to be a Darwin joke. Why did the chicken cross the road? Darwin: It was the logical next step after coming down from the trees.
-