Valerii has a background in medicine and a keen interest in computational science, so he dreams about marrying the two. He says he wants to be part of the “computational revolution in medicine and biology — genomes analysis, drug discovery, bionic implants, brain-to-machine interfaces, you name it.”
His passion led him to meet with Professor Oleksyk and his student Walter Wolfsberger at Oakland University in Michigan, who became his mentors. He was later accepted to a Master’s program at Oakland University, but his plans to study in the US were put on hold when the Russian invasion started. He decided to join the armed forces and was drafted to the border guard unit, where he is currently serving.
“My main project, for now, is protecting Ukrainian people and soil from invaders,” he says. “But I hope to get back to bioinformatics one day, so I take online courses and do small pet projects in my free time — like searching for the telomere fusion site in the 2nd chromosome.”
Choosing this career path means doing what he has always wanted. He remembers reading a book as a child, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!,” and thinking: “Holy cr@p, being a scientist is an amazing life journey!”
That sense of awe and curiosity has stayed with him throughout his life. “I do love mysteries — and our wonderful, breathtaking, and scary Universe is full of them!” he says.