Evie Malaia
Interview Posted By: Ashley Smith
1. Can you tell us a little about your background? i.e. Where you grew up, what education do you have, a summary of your resume, did you always want to do what you are doing now, when did you start to become interested in STEM, what internships/ volunteering.
I grew up in Russia, in a family of engineers. We had a lot of books at home, but I loved logic and math puzzle books the best – Lewis Carroll (did you know he made up his own logic for entertainment?), Martin Gardner, Raymond Smullyan, and so on. I ended up in a program for math-gifted kids, spent my time going to competitions, and had a lot of fun with it. Then in one of the kids’ science journals, I bumped into the problems from the “Linguistic Olympics”. They were the best! It was like solving logic puzzles, but harder and more fun. That’s how I learned about linguistics, and decided that linguistic kinds of puzzles were things I wanted to solve for a living.
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
As a professor, I don’t have a set schedule; most of the things I do take longer than a day. Here is the list of things I do: I come up with ideas for research projects, find people to share resources and work with, then write those ideas up as grants. Grants are basically bids for doing research; depending on the topic, different governmental or private organizations might award grants – or pay me on a contract to do research work. The funding agency can decide on the topic, but the actual research ideas are mine. Then I use different neuroscience tools to get data – I am certified to run fMRI scanners, EEG equipment, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (which is zapping your brain with electricity to help it work in a certain way – or at least we hope so). I teach others to use the tools and make sense of the data – sometimes my students, sometimes other professors. Finally, when I think there’s something new and interesting I’ve learned from the data, I write it up as a manuscript, and send it to journals. Other researchers read my work and decide if it is interesting enough, and well-done, to publish. Besides that, I teach classes or short practical courses. I enjoy that part of work quite a bit, because I like how students ask new questions about things we thought were well-understood. I teach in other countries during the summer break sometimes, because I want to help as many people as I can become researchers. I remember how hard it was for me to find the people to connect with!
3. How does STEM relate to your job? How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
I study brain bases of higher cognition (using language and math, solving complex problems). I took courses in Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering while studying for my degree in linguistics. I did not have to take those classes for the degree, but there were skills I needed to pick up to do the research I cared about, so I went for them. MATLAB programming turned out to be very useful, so did Java and Signal Processing. I know that other researchers did the same things: we often had to “patch together” our graduate studies to get the skills we needed. We joke, “if we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research”.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
I once walked into a 200-student course on programming, and heard from fellow students: “Are you in the right class?” (I was the only girl in it, yes), or “The logic of this program is crazy, only a girl could come up with that!” (that was from a teaching assistant in a Java programming course).
The only advice is I have is to learn to fight for yourself, because you will have to. Call misogynists out on their words and actions. Ask why your teacher, professor, or boss is not treating you and your male colleagues the same. Keep your focus on your work, but when discrimination comes up – speak up.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
I look forward to thinking about data. Planning experiments. To interacting with very interesting, smart people – by reading their papers, talking about writing grants together, preparing studies, or teaching classes. Working with others on the topics I enjoy is kind of like expanding my brain – plugging it in to other people’s brains. That’s very fun.
The part I’d like to change is the negativity from administrators that affects both me and my students. I know that my mentors tried to shield me from it when I was studying, and now it is my job to shield my students from nay-sayers, and let them work… but it’s that much harder when you’re female, and when you’re young by academic standards.
6. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
Learn to ask for help when you need it. I have at one point converted my office into a nursing room for a student, so that she could continue taking classes throughout the time she was nursing her baby. She was able to stay in the Master’s program, and is now working on her Ph.D.
As a woman, you have to be ready to face people who have absolutely no interest in supporting you. They will try to make you look bad for any decision you make – have kids or not; take research leave or not; bid on more difficult projects, and when; etc. Search for support, do not expect it. Decide what is the right thing for you, and do exactly it. You have only one life, and you cannot spend it on other people’s opinions.
7. What do you define success as?
Having time and freedom to do what I love: testing out new, creative scientific ideas.
8. What is one personality trait that you think is universally important for a successful career?
Being ready to fail many times, and learn from constructive criticism. I ask for feedback early in any work, and keep doing it often.
9. Who was a mentor to you throughout your career? (can be more than one!) What did they teach you? How did they impact your life?
My graduate school advisor had the confidence and wisdom to let me work on what I wanted to work on (develop difficult new analysis methods), and protected my time for it. Most of all, I want to pay it forward to my students.
I also learned a lot from my peers. They are in different disciplines (from Fine Arts to Immunology to Political Science), but it’s not the content of what one studies that’s important; it’s how they give themselves hard problems to work on. That’s inspiring.
10. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
Make your own challenges, and value your time. Spend it on what you love to do, not what others want you to do.
Website: www.eveiemalaia.weeebly.com
I grew up in Russia, in a family of engineers. We had a lot of books at home, but I loved logic and math puzzle books the best – Lewis Carroll (did you know he made up his own logic for entertainment?), Martin Gardner, Raymond Smullyan, and so on. I ended up in a program for math-gifted kids, spent my time going to competitions, and had a lot of fun with it. Then in one of the kids’ science journals, I bumped into the problems from the “Linguistic Olympics”. They were the best! It was like solving logic puzzles, but harder and more fun. That’s how I learned about linguistics, and decided that linguistic kinds of puzzles were things I wanted to solve for a living.
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
As a professor, I don’t have a set schedule; most of the things I do take longer than a day. Here is the list of things I do: I come up with ideas for research projects, find people to share resources and work with, then write those ideas up as grants. Grants are basically bids for doing research; depending on the topic, different governmental or private organizations might award grants – or pay me on a contract to do research work. The funding agency can decide on the topic, but the actual research ideas are mine. Then I use different neuroscience tools to get data – I am certified to run fMRI scanners, EEG equipment, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (which is zapping your brain with electricity to help it work in a certain way – or at least we hope so). I teach others to use the tools and make sense of the data – sometimes my students, sometimes other professors. Finally, when I think there’s something new and interesting I’ve learned from the data, I write it up as a manuscript, and send it to journals. Other researchers read my work and decide if it is interesting enough, and well-done, to publish. Besides that, I teach classes or short practical courses. I enjoy that part of work quite a bit, because I like how students ask new questions about things we thought were well-understood. I teach in other countries during the summer break sometimes, because I want to help as many people as I can become researchers. I remember how hard it was for me to find the people to connect with!
3. How does STEM relate to your job? How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
I study brain bases of higher cognition (using language and math, solving complex problems). I took courses in Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering while studying for my degree in linguistics. I did not have to take those classes for the degree, but there were skills I needed to pick up to do the research I cared about, so I went for them. MATLAB programming turned out to be very useful, so did Java and Signal Processing. I know that other researchers did the same things: we often had to “patch together” our graduate studies to get the skills we needed. We joke, “if we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research”.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
I once walked into a 200-student course on programming, and heard from fellow students: “Are you in the right class?” (I was the only girl in it, yes), or “The logic of this program is crazy, only a girl could come up with that!” (that was from a teaching assistant in a Java programming course).
The only advice is I have is to learn to fight for yourself, because you will have to. Call misogynists out on their words and actions. Ask why your teacher, professor, or boss is not treating you and your male colleagues the same. Keep your focus on your work, but when discrimination comes up – speak up.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
I look forward to thinking about data. Planning experiments. To interacting with very interesting, smart people – by reading their papers, talking about writing grants together, preparing studies, or teaching classes. Working with others on the topics I enjoy is kind of like expanding my brain – plugging it in to other people’s brains. That’s very fun.
The part I’d like to change is the negativity from administrators that affects both me and my students. I know that my mentors tried to shield me from it when I was studying, and now it is my job to shield my students from nay-sayers, and let them work… but it’s that much harder when you’re female, and when you’re young by academic standards.
6. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
Learn to ask for help when you need it. I have at one point converted my office into a nursing room for a student, so that she could continue taking classes throughout the time she was nursing her baby. She was able to stay in the Master’s program, and is now working on her Ph.D.
As a woman, you have to be ready to face people who have absolutely no interest in supporting you. They will try to make you look bad for any decision you make – have kids or not; take research leave or not; bid on more difficult projects, and when; etc. Search for support, do not expect it. Decide what is the right thing for you, and do exactly it. You have only one life, and you cannot spend it on other people’s opinions.
7. What do you define success as?
Having time and freedom to do what I love: testing out new, creative scientific ideas.
8. What is one personality trait that you think is universally important for a successful career?
Being ready to fail many times, and learn from constructive criticism. I ask for feedback early in any work, and keep doing it often.
9. Who was a mentor to you throughout your career? (can be more than one!) What did they teach you? How did they impact your life?
My graduate school advisor had the confidence and wisdom to let me work on what I wanted to work on (develop difficult new analysis methods), and protected my time for it. Most of all, I want to pay it forward to my students.
I also learned a lot from my peers. They are in different disciplines (from Fine Arts to Immunology to Political Science), but it’s not the content of what one studies that’s important; it’s how they give themselves hard problems to work on. That’s inspiring.
10. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
Make your own challenges, and value your time. Spend it on what you love to do, not what others want you to do.
Website: www.eveiemalaia.weeebly.com