BITS OF BIOGRAPHY
Born in Turkey but raised in Bulgaria, I come from a multi-cultural family. In addition to Bulgarian and Turkish, I grew up speaking Russian too, which I learned at school. My passion for connecting with peoples and cultures took me to Duino (Italy), where I attended the United World College of the Adriatic (UWC Adriatic) on a partial merit and need-based scholarship.
I flourished in the deliberately diverse environment at the College, where I laid the foundations of many of my passions. Volunteering was one of my favourite aspects of life in Duino; befriending two women with multiple sclerosis expanded my world-view while also pushing me to quickly become conversational in Italian. Having been on the Bulgarian National Debate team before coming to Duino, I co-founded the Debate club at the College in my first year.
An unforgettable highlight of my finalist DP year was preparing for a half-marathon together with several friends and staff. Earlier that year, I organised a project week in Sofia, Bulgaria, where a group of 7 students spent the week delivering fun activities for children with disabilities in a special school. As a whole, my time in UWC Adriatic fostered my leadership, empathy, discipline, and commitment to deliberate diversity in work and fun.TIME AT UCL
I then moved to London, UK, to pursue my undergraduate studies at University College London (UCL) on a privately funded full merit scholarship. I engaged with the student community by being a student representative, a student-staff integration ambassador, and a transition mentor, helping first-year students adapt to UCL. I also volunteered with UCL Marrow, the student branch of the blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan, and was a Science Executive for the UCL Data Science Society, developing and delivering beginner and intermediate Python for Data Science programming workshops.
My intellectual curiosity and fascination with the diversity of living organisms on our planet compelled me to pursue a degree in the Biological Sciences. I has recently been awarded first-class MSci in Computational Biology, ranking second among my finalist peers at UCL, equipped with the analytical and software skills to pursue some of the most challenging but stimulating questions from all walks of life (as in, living organisms).
AND BEYOND...
All of this to say that I am now a Computational Biologist: that is, a data scientist with a solid background in living things and what's keeping them alive, especially at the microscopic scale. I am passionate about all things data, but add in a twist of improving patient outcomes through cutting-edge discoveries in healthcare tech. I am preparing to continue my studies by pursuing a PhD in computational biology. I am determined make an impact at the forefront of data-driven solutions for health.