I've been working at Skoltech for two years and the first year I was working with plants mostly. We improved genetically some resistance to disease in plants. And this year I'm working mostly in consulting. For example, there are some companies which are interested in producing biofuel from microalgae. I'm preparing this kind of project helping them.

I tried to find a job in Russia for about one year before I moved to Skoltech. I've really wanted to live in Russia for a long time. It wasn't very easy for me because I'd just finished my studies, so I didn't have any experience.

In France, first I got a two-year degree in biology to become a lab technician. Then I got a bachelor in molecular and cellular biology. And then I got an engineering degree in food science.

For me, the most comfortable here is the environment, how modern the company is. We have very good equipment, lots of opportunities, lots of foreigners also. That's interesting to meet people from different horizons and different countries.

I already knew Russia before I moved here, so I wasn't very surprised. Not many things changed for me. I'm still very happy to live here. The only thing that changed maybe is that now I really know that I want to stay in Russia. I don't want to go back to France.

Well, probably for me, the biggest shock is that I feel completely safe in the country. So I move a lot on my own. I take the night train and I go to all the cities and I never felt insecure or unsafe. I travelled to smaller cities like Yaroslavl, Kostroma and I just walked on my own and everything was fine.

The first thing that came to my mind are toothpicks at the restaurants. Why? In France it is just impossible to use them in public. We don't have toothpicks in the restaurant. This is just not understandable.

Well, I meet a lot of foreigners who travel to Moscow for two weeks, for example, during the summer, and they just look around and they're already convinced. I don't know, just come for two weeks and that's an easy way to be convinced. I mean, everything is working so perfectly in Moscow. It's really comfortable. The transportation is very impressive, for example, how clean it is compared to France, at least.

Первое время в Сколтехе вообще было очень интересно. Особенно был интересен первый день. Я приехала устраиваться на работу в Сколтех на Камазе. Тут была стройка, стоял Гиперкуб посреди чистого поля, всё раскопано, грязь, шёл дождь. Все нормальные люди приезжали на маршрутке со стороны Школы управления «Сколково», со Сколковского шоссе. А я жила в Трёхгорке. С Трёхгоркой в тот момент никакого общественного транспорта не было, никакой связи. Я машину не водила. Я посмотрела по карте, что идти тут всего ничего. Думаю, дойду пешком. Но не учла стройку. Пришла, а дорог нет, ничего нет. Ехал какой-то водитель на Камазе, меня подбросил до Гиперкуба. Такое у меня первое впечатление.

I think what we’ll see here 100 years from now is a closer integration between Skoltech and other Russian science centers. I really hope that in funding science and education we complete the shift to a model where projects and solutions are initially funded while they’re small, then there’s competitive selection, and the most promising ones get funding. Most of all, I hope that Skoltech will be graduating professionals, who will be making decisions. Because there’s nothing worse than a lack of professionalism.

We are Skoltech — a new international English-speaking STEM university that was founded by the group of world-renowned scientists in 2011 in Moscow, Russia. In just 11 years, we united dozens of researchers and globally renowned professors, built a stunning campus, set up world-class labs and made it to the top 100 young universities in the Nature Index.