Welcome to my blog!
This post is a bit of a introduction.
I am Sofiia, starting university next year to study biomedical science and in love with all things musicals, animals, biology, STEM, science, disability awareness, neurodiversity inclusion and more.
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Some links:
email: sofiiafurman.reachout@gmail.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiia-furman-8a6853340/
https://x.com/SofiiaFurman_x
https://www.facebook.com/people/Sofiia-Furman/pfbid0355UXq3fC5Z2oGquCQKH6gu5C9TzF6kVpUe1aiMjtpQFbqtQH1ZpJ36wFjjJQELuzl/
https://www.instagram.com/sofiiaf_insta/
https://www.threads.net/@sofiiaf_insta
(insta for my puppy @sunshine.superdog)
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Introduction | I'm Sofiia- a biology student who loves musicals, animals, health, STEM, biomedical science, biosecurity, disability awareness and more! |
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Interests | biology, biomedicine, biomedical science, science, stem, medicine, health, biosecurity, musicals, animals, disability awareness, neurodiversity, inclusion |
Favorite Music | Hamilton, In the Heights, Wicked, Matilda, Les Mis, Dear Evan Hansen, Amelie, Anastasia, Waitress, Frozen |
What is your favourite unique and specific compliment you ever recieved?
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My bio blog: Sofiia Furman Biology Blog (plus some personal things on musicals, life, notes, podcast planning, conferences, papers, internships, wet and dry labs, lit reviews, rabbits, dogs, life with puppies, policy and comms, public and global health)
Currently volunteering and helping out with Leaf courses and other projects...
A bio podcast I run: Under the Microscope Biology Podcast (also YT and podcast apps under 'Under the Microscope Biology Podcast' or Insta/X/Threads/Facebook (mainly Insta and Threads) on @UTMPodcastbio
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My experiences
Starting Biomedical Science at Bath University 2025. Currently open to wet and dry lab biology experience, and upskilling in data analysis and bioinformatics. Help run Leaf courses.
Past experience: founder of EAXplore, completed EA Intro, Handbook Calls, and CF2023 alum. Founder of school MedSoc and BSLSoc. 2nd Place in National Public Speaking at English Speaking Union 2022, winner of BrightIdeas Medical Research.
Podcast https://utmbiopod.buzzsprout.com/ on biologists doing good, blog https://sofiiabioblog.blogspot.com/
Pate's Grammar School Alevel and GCSE
Volunteer 2023-2024, Community Organiser 2024-nowVolunteer 2023-2024, Community Organiser 2024-now
LeafLeafEducationEducation
Other experiences:Other experiences:
Primary research and independent data analysis- Jan-Dec 2023Primary research and independent data analysis- Jan-Dec 2023
Research and lab experience positions, including wet lab work at RG universities- summer 2021-22Research and lab experience positions, including wet lab work at RG universities- summer 2021-22
Science leadership 2020-23Science leadership 2020-23
Supercurricular biology education projects- 2020-23Supercurricular biology education projects- 2020-23
Wet and dry lab experience
Articles/book/podcast recommendations
Bioinformatics help with learning
Coauthoring papers?
Coauthoring papers
Researching for topics you need
Wet and dry lab interning
HEAs
In my eyes, I have not made an effective impact yet in any cause area, especially biosecurity or public health, and yet I think compared to most 18 year olds I have started making choices that will set me up to have an effective career and mindset, plus I have been gaining comm building skills throughout my work.
Next year @Jian Xin Lim🔹 kindly offered for me to take over EABath (when I start uni) and I also help out a bit at Leaf. And it got me thinking
What is the ideal outcome of a HEA? Are all HEAs on the same path? Say someone took on all reasoning, and chose earn to give and donated millions to GiveWell (think similar to FTX without any integrity issues in terms of involvement), if all EAs did that we'd get diminishing returns on the top charities, we'd lose the community, other cause areas may suffer and also it just would feel a bit of an afterthought. And yet would we consider that individual a HEA if his reasoning for all the earning and donation aligned with the 4 tenets and had that idea of helping others effectively?
Compared to someone who maybe is against animal welfare issues. If that person earned to give as a head of factories with poor conditions, they may lower costs and conditions to donate more (let's say purely to donate more) whilst the person concerned with animal welfare who is also an EA may try to do the opposite. So are they both HEAs? Do we have a metric?
Just some rough thoughts swirling around, nothing concrete or important but would love to hear
A split between career capital, skills, experience and others:
Get into university (this is a working towards goal to start biomedical science in Sept 2025), dependant on alevel results (find out in August)
Podcast episodes (under the microscope) release at least 6 cell-ebrity episodes with biologists doing good and making an impact Do frequent (e.g. weekly) bio bite episodes
Write at least 10 blog posts or forum posts on biology and biorisk topics to grow skills in comms and literature
Get an internship at a lab for the summer (ideally to learn technical wet lab skills relevant to genetics, epidemiology, vaccines, infectious disease etc)
How others can help If anyone has any connections for wet lab internships in England or who may consider grant funding (eg charities, stipends) for 18 year old for this purpose Anyone working in the bioscience fields interested in being interviewed on the podcast Anyone who wants to collaborate on a paper especially in biosecurity who needs a less qualified but very ambitious and hard working individual to research or write parts of it
New podcast episode S1E2 releases soon
on
WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, (S)WHY(NE FLU)
THE 5 W'S OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
We look at the basics of what it is, why we use it, and how a case study of H1N1 reveals so many questions yet to be answered