Natalia, given your background in physics engineering and extensive experience as a researcher, can you share some key insights into your work in astrobiology, particularly focusing on the cosmic origin of life, and how your contributions have evolved over the years?
To be honest, I wouldn’t call it “my” contribution. Any individual research wouldn’t be possible without being supported by the team of collaborators and co-workers. I had an unforgettable experience of working together with talented and devoted people, conducting the research in the unique area of astrobiology. This discipline consists of many parts concerning physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy — all of them are called “life sciences”. Key features of astrobiology involve research of formation and further development of principal organic substances. I hope my job starting from the post-graduate student and up to the full-time researcher alongside with my publications gave certain additional knowledge to my students and provided them with the platform for further personal development. I also hope that I’ve succeeded in revealing the benefits of creative work which is possible only if you understand and love the profession that you are in. Any job, not just a scientific one.
Your role as an editorial board member of the international journal «Astrobiology» is quite significant. Could you elaborate on your experiences in this capacity and how being part of such a publication has influenced your perspective on astrobiology research?
Being a part of any editorial board is very important and beneficial, but also highly responsible challenge. My general task was overall estimation of the articles submitted for publication, assessment of their relevance to the field and — the last but not the least — finding out all kind of technical and/or semantic errors or inaccuracies. This is the most peculiar and painstaking part of an editorial job. Usually there are two or even three editors who are supposed to undertake kind of common effort to polish every submitted article, especially in the case of an international magazine distributed worldwide. In my case every article that I’ve read and edited gave me certain new knowledge in the areas related to astrobiology. For example, having a background in physics engineering, sometimes I lacked information in biology or chemistry, kind of white spots on my personal roadmap. Due to the publications in these areas that I was supposed to read and reveal, I became more informed about some details and experimental approaches used mainly in biology or chemistry. This was good feedback influencing my perspective on astrobiology research.
Moving to France in 2013 for your youngest son’s long-term treatment must have been a challenging decision. How did this major life change impact your career, and what adjustments did you make in your professional life during this period?
This was probably the most challenging part of my life ever. Imagine you have a nice family, an interesting job, and one day facing a task which you are not able to fulfill, namely, to combine professional activities with everyday care for disabled child. I am blessed to have loving and supportive family — my husband, my mother and my oldest daughter, who gave me strength to overcome this period full of stress and sorrow after it became clear that my son is never going to be like other children and will need some help 24/7. I had to change my life completely in order to maintain his needs and to have periodical medical treatment. When he turned 6, I had to think about special school education. At this time my friends and colleagues from France proposed to move there in order to apply to the special medical and education establishment for autistic children. That’s what we certainly did. Moving to France meant changing all my previous lifestyle completely. Now I could work only remotely, and certainly I had to quit my full-time job. Besides, I didn’t speak any French — the task was to learn language at least to its basic level in order to communicate at our new school, to fill out endless formal documents and to express our situation visiting local authorities. Living in France it’s a must to speak French. But! This situation forced me to learn my fourth language. Besides, France is always beautiful…
Balancing remote work, writing, and editing articles while being a volunteer for the French charitable organization «Lenval foundation» indicates a busy schedule. How do you manage to juggle these responsibilities, and what motivates you to actively participate in charitable activities, especially those related to autistic children?
My main motivation is to never give up and stay active in any obstacles in order to help people who are in similar situations and might need physical or psychological help. Namely, mothers of disabled children who face this challenge and have to live with it. Since I’m dealing with parents of autistic children almost every day at school, we decided to help each other using a common chat that provides us with up-to-date information and urgent needs of our children. From time to time I’m delegated to organise certain activities for the schoolchildren — decorate the school for holidays, provide with special things they need, and so on and so on. My most successful effort was to attract more attention to the disabled children using sponsor’s help and to organise mutual events with our sponsors. Lenval foundation is organising certain charity events involving French companies to attract more attention to the children with disabilities. I’m especially grateful to the representatives of the French construction company « Batiglobal », who became our long-time collaborators and friends. https://www.batiglobal.com
Transitioning from your initial career path to working remotely and engaging in charitable activities reflects a significant life shift. Could you share the insights and lessons you’ve gained from this transition, especially considering the unique challenges you faced with your son’s autism and the relocation to France?
Lessons that I’ve learned are as follows:
1) Never give up. You are much stronger than you think
2) Stay active, do something in any obstacles. Better to make mistakes than to regret about non-realised options
3) Don’t think about how it could be. Live now and here.
4) Think positive. Be an optimist, make the best of what you have.
5) Never blame others for anything.
6) Do something for your body and soul everyday — find physical activities that fit your body and lifestyle. For my body it’s swimming and skiing. For my soul — it’s music in each and every manifestation
It’s extremely important to live in harmony between you and your environment. Besides, there is one prerequisite: your inner harmony, between your body and soul. There are no recipes on how to achieve this. It is something very individual, even intimate. In my case, I would recommend being positive and open-minded in any and every situation, trusting and relying on people unless there’s no harm or violence from their side.
Always stay active – both physically and mentally, learn lessons from life every day, find fabulous things and manifestations that happen even in the daily routines. Sunrise and sunset are breathtaking, but who said that rainy days are not? Think positive, find out what your heritage is. Love and respect your parents, teach your children to be supportive and responsible using your own behaviour, not just by telling them certain rules and regulations. This is the chain of life that they will be prolonging.
Never regret your past, but make certain conclusions concerning the future. Listen to good music, read paper books, try to find out your unrevealed talents – maybe you are a gifted artist who never tried to create any work of art? Always stay open to new possibilities in your life and help those who need this. Find your own definition for living in harmony of your outer and inner self.
And one more thing — beauty is everywhere, our task is to just to recognise it.
