Dr. Maria Iliut
Postdoctoral Research Associate: graphene composites and coatings
When I was fifteen, I left Moldova and went to study in Constanța on the Black Sea in Romania. I tried so hard to get there as there were very few places for people from Moldova. Making the adjustment at that age was difficult, it took me 2 two years to establish my personality and I was always underestimating my own ability. I cut my hair short, coloured it white and I was wearing guy’s clothes and stuff. A little bit crazy. I was always thinking I’m not good enough but this was not necessarily an underestimation of myself, more like motivation, there is room for improvement.
I went to University in Cluj. It’s a good university and they had studentships for people from Moldova. They offered the option of double specialisation so I chose to do chemistry and physics. We were doing proper chemistry and proper physics which has influenced my thinking ever since because if you go too much with physics, you risk losing yourself in mathematics and losing the meaning of things. For me, chemistry fills in the gaps and when you make this connection, it’s beautiful. Understanding processes from more perspectives will give you the whole image of something.