Mayya Sundukova, PhD

updated: 04 August 2022

Researcher and facilitator mentor based in Bilbao, Spain

Email / LinkedIn / GitHub / Twitter/ ORCID

pronouns: she/her

🏛️ Affiliations:

Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education (IGDORE)
Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA)
Open Life Science

🌱 Open Science

• Content reviewer, editor and writer at the OpenCore modules course of NASA’s Tranform to Open Science (TOPS) program
• Mentor at Open Life Science (OLS) - training and mentoring program for researchers and other stakeholders to embed open principles in their work
  OLS-5 cohort, online (February - July 2022)
  
• Facilitator in cohort calls at Open Life Science (OLS)
  OLS-5 cohort, online (February - July 2022) and OLS-3 cohort, online (February - July 2021)
  
• Co-designed and co-led a 3-hour interactive workshop Empowering research community with open principles - The Research Software Camp, The Software Sustainability institute - (23/05/2022)
• Participant in the OpenAIRE Train the Trainer bootcamp online (6 - 10 June 2022)
  intermediate and advanced level of knowledge and teaching of Open Science, open data, DMPs, OA publishing, IPR, Horizon Europe requirements, OpenAIRE services, and EOSC
• Project lead in the training and mentoring program “eLife Innovation Leaders 2020” in open leadership and open research, developing of own project “Rekombinational” – online (February - June 2020)

💚 Mental Health and Well-being of researchers

• Virtual mobility grant from the ReMO COST Action CA19117: “Researcher Mental Health” on coordination of policy briefs preparation for ReMO countries, online - (June 2022 – now)
  

• active participant of the ReMO Working group 1,2 and 3 (system, institutional and organizational levels), including special interest group (design and preparation of the large multi-level survey for practices of mental health in academia, WP2 (research and hypothesis)
  ReMO COST Action CA19117: “Researcher Mental Health”, online - (January 2022 – now)
  

• Program organising committee for ReMO Ambassador Training School and 1st Conference of the Researcher Mental Health Observatory (ReMO 2022)
• co-organiser and moderator of the session at the Annual Marie Curie Alumni Association conference, Lisbon, Portugal - (27, 28 March 2022)
  

🔬 Research Experience

Postdoctoral Fellow Basque Center for Biophysics (Instituto Biofisika), Leioa, Spain, (01/2020 – 01/2021)

• Memory “in-a-dish”: studying AMPA receptors plasticity in cultured neurons with live fluorescence imaging
• design and coordination of the content for the institutional website

Maternity/caregiving hiatus - 2019

• science consulting and manuscript writing
• science communication in a professional magazine on Medical Writing
• talk at the microscopy symposium
• active member of online training and community “industry & business” knowledge for PhDs

Interdisciplinary EIPOD Postdoctoral Fellow Neuroscience and Epigenetics/Mouse Biology European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Rome, Italy - (2013 – 2018)

• I led and managed several projects at the interface of neurobiology, biomedicine and technology development in molecular mechanisms of touch and pain
• Main achievements: 5 publications in top-rank journals (1 as the corresponding author), in 2015-2017 I led a team of 2 to 5 students and trainees, co-supervised 1 Master thesis and 5 undergraduate students, nurtured a rich network of cross-disciplinary collaborations in European and nonEuropean research centers of excellence
  

PhD Candidate in Neuroscience SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies), Trieste, Italy - (2007 - 2012)

🌱 Facilitation, coaching and mentoring experience

Coach apprentice at Narrative Coach program
The Moment Institue, online (January - November 2022)

Mentor at REBECA (Researchers beyond academia) mentoring program for career outside academia
Euraxess, online (February - July 2022)

Mentor at REFERENT, mental health- focused mentoring program
Marie Curie Alumni Association, online (April - October 2022)

Facilitator in therapeutic writing, online (April 2022 - now)

💬 Qualitative research skills

Qualitative Research for Quantitative Researchers - 4 week interactive course with Dr Beth Duckles - online (May - June 2022)

Organizing focus groups for research on training - training and mini-project with Discovery Learning
co-designed, co-moderated, co-analyzed a focus group on 10 May 2022, online - (March - May 2022)

🥾Training, courses and hackathons

• Participant in the OEduverse Winter School (hackathon) - Design your Research Environment - online (10-17/01/2022)
  1-week intensive hackathon to design optimal research environment using Open Science principles, focus on mental wellbeing and communication skills

• Deep Learning 3 week intensive course and project
  Neuromatch Academy (NMA) - online (August 2021) 08/2021
  PyTorch course on Deep Learning and group computer vision project on “Using VAEs architecture for transfer learning”
  mentored by Alex Hernandez-Garcia (Mila - Quebec AI Institute)

• Amateur Theatre School “Lo spazio vuoto”, in-person - Monterotondo, Italy (2016-2018)
• 60-hours course on verbal and non-verbal communication (nr. FP1114791002), IAL FVG, in-person, Trieste, Italy_(2011)_

👩🏼‍🎓 Education

Master Degree in Physics
University of Trieste - Trieste, Italy (2019)
Official recognition of degree equivalence (Laurea Magistrale, equipollenza)

PhD in Neuroscience
SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies) - Trieste, Italy (2007 – 2012)
Thesis: “Multifaceted regulation of pain-transducing P2X3 receptors”, Advisor: A. Nistri

Specialist Degree in Physics with Honours
(5-year program), specialization: Medical Physics
Kazan State University - Kazan, Russia (2002-2007)
Thesis: “NMR studies of water exchange in red blood cells”, Advisors: A. Skorinkin, A.Mutina

🌐 Languages

English: Full professional efficiency
Italian: Full professional efficiency
Russian: Native
Spanish: B2 level (Upper Intermediate), certified by EOI language school

🗣️ Selected given workshops and trainings:

• Towards helping practitioner for researchers - The Open Life Science OLS-5 cohort call on career and open leadership - (25/04/2022)
• Interactive workshop Journey using narradrama approach – festival of narradrama (in Russian) – 18/12/2021 Online
• Beyond academia using imagery speaker at the 2022 MCAA Annual Conference, 27-28/03/2022, Lisbon, Portugal
• Intersectoral (career) mobility: reflections from the liminality space EURAXESS - Supporting researchers’ intersectoral career paths for building ERA Conference – 20/01/2022 Online

Selected scientific talks:

• “Semi-synthetic approach for optical interrogation of the nervous system” - 14/02/2020, Seminars - Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience, Bilbao, Spain
• “Electrophysiology in the age of light: genetic targeting of tethered chemical indicators for functional neuronal imaging” - CMCB Life Sciences Seminar - 10/08/2017, Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD), Dresden, Germany
• “Targeting peripheral nerve block for neuropathic pain relief” - 22/03/2017, Award ceremony, IBSA Foundation for scientific research HQ, Lugano, Switzerland
• “Multifaceted regulation of pain-transducing ATP-gated P2X3 receptors: antagonists, species, structure, compartmentalization” – 12/07/2012, Neuroscience Institute, Alicante, Spain
• “Multifaceted regulation of pain-sensing P2X3 receptors: desensitization” – 29/06/2012, Single ion channel group, UCL, London, UK -“Identification and optimization of novel adenine-based antagonists of P2X3 receptors” - 01/06/2010, Purines Meeting, Tarragona, Spain

Grants and funding:

1. Research mobility funding. Travel grant from Marie Curie Alumni Association to attend MCAA conference in 2022
2. Scholarship covering 50% of tuition fees for Narrative Coach Training Program, The Moment Institute (2021-2022).
3. Postdoctoral fellowship. Funding entity: Fundacion Biofisika Bizkaia. 15/01/2020 – 14/01/2021.
4. Research mobility funding. Travel grant for attending “3. Slovene Microscopy Symposium”, Ankaran, Slovenia, 05/2019.
5. Postdoctoral fellowship. Award. Funding entity: IBSA Foundation for Scientific Research. 01/07/2016 – 31/06/2017.
6. Postdoctoral fellowship. EIPOD (EMBL Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral fellowship) COFUND II grant of MCSA and EMBL, 01/01/2013 – 30/06/2016.
7. Research mobility funding. Travel grant for a short research stay at IIT (L.Berdondini lab, Genova, Italy), 08/2016.
8. Internship. Funding for internship at EMBL, Rome, Italy - 11/2012 – 12/2012.
9. Research mobility funding. IBRO Award. Travel grant for a short research stay (F.Viana lab, Alicante Neuroscience Institute), 07/2012.
10. Research mobility funding. Grant to attend summer workshop “Understanding ion channel currents in terms of mechanisms”, UCL, London, UK, 06/2012.
11. Postdoctoral grant. Three-month fellowship, SPINAL, SISSA, Trieste, Italy. 05/2012 – 08/2012.
12. Predoctoral fellowship. PhD fellowship covering salary for 4,5 years from SISSA, Trieste, Italy. 11/2007 – 04/2012.
13. Scholarship from V. Potanin Foundation for academic excellence and proactive business -oriented mindset. Start-End date:11/2006 – 06/2007.
14. Grant for young scientists (RNP.2.1.1.3222) for consumables and scholarship, Kazan State University, Kazan, Russia. Awarded 01/2006.
15. Scholarship for academic excellence, Kazan State University, Kazan, Russia. 09/2002 – 06/2007.

Publications

Works listed on ORCID

Memberships:

• Community: active member of Bizkaia Talent/ Euraxess network _(2020 - now)
• Industry knowledge in R&D and management online training networks: R&D Society, ScientistMBA,Medical Writing Organization at Cheeky Scientist Associations (2019 – now)
• Professional Women Network - Bilbao (2022 - now)