Meet the Bloggers: Ina Nikolaeva

My name is Ina Nikolaeva. I was born in the small country of Bulgaria in 1989, from where my family moved to Canada, via South Africa. I am fluent in two languages, Bulgarian and English, with some knowledge of French left over from my time in Canada. I completed my Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology and a Chemistry minor at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada. During my undergraduate experience, I met one of the most diverse and intelligent individuals, Dr. Danton O’Day, who became my research mentor in 4^th year. He taught me to love scientific research and to push through setbacks and hurdles inevitable in every research project. While I was there, I worked on the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, and completed sufficient work for a poster presentation at the Annual International Dictyostelium Conference and a communication paper. I came to New Jersey for my graduate studies at Rutgers University, as I found it to be an exciting institution with every strain of biology research imaginable I am now a 4^th year PhD candidate in Dr. Gabriella D’Arcangelo’s laboratory. My current research interests involve modeling traumatic brain injury and developmental brain disorders in mice. I used to be certain I would one day run a lab of my own. I have recently shifted in the direction of what is now called “alternative careers for PhD students”, such as industry, government research, teaching, and writing. I have gathered a wide variety of teaching experience, starting out at a tutoring center in Canada in order to support myself through my undergraduate studies. Upon arriving at Rutgers University, I continued my involvement in tutoring by providing assistance to fellow students in graduate courses such as Biochemistry and Molecular Biology through the peer tutoring program. I have also been a teaching assistant for a biology laboratory course for three semesters to date. Overall, teaching and instruction have been large and rewarding parts of my life for over seven years, and I want to pursue either a part- or full-time career in science education somewhere in the future. My hobbies include classical ballet dance, in which I train as an adult student at the Ballet-Central New Jersey school (www.balletcnj.org), and my Chi/Shi Tzu/terrier mix puppy. My wonderful ballet instructors have actually let me onstage a few times along with the pre-professional students (i.e. the real dancers). My posts to this blog will largely span reviews, opinion pieces and summaries of iJOBS-related proceedings. I regularly attend iJOBS events, with a special focus on Career Panels and the SciPhD program. I hope to provide helpful insights and ideas for current and future participants in the program while gaining some writing/blogging experience in the process.