As a kid growing up in Siberia, I always admired ecologists, their interesting jobs out in primeval taiga, and their adventurous lives. But I never thought I would myself pursue such a career, until one day I moved to the US where it suddenly became a possibility. And so, I channeled my passion for wild places into a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers, and along the way I have had a chance to try my hand at field research, working in a lab, and even teaching a short seminar. Large scale processes fascinate me, and I have been very fortunate to assist with long-term research in Antarctica and the Arctic, contributing data to a record that goes back decades. Even though my contribution was modest, knowing that it would become a part of a larger body of research motivated me through cold weather sampling and long days at the lab bench. Because I am so fond of large scale phenomena, I became interested in environmental geomatics. Every time I get to participate in a GIS project, I get excited about the questions that can be answered with GIS tools. As I am graduating from Rutgers, I hope to find a job that would combine the hands-on field experience with the opportunities inherent in spatial analysis, so that I can keep on learning about our natural world and maybe contribute a little bit to our understanding of it
May 2020