Mayya Sundukova: “Bizkaia Talent helped me to orientate my working career and create a network of contacts in the scientific ecosystem of the Basque Country”

• The Russian research worker who collaborates in the Bizkaia Biophysics Foundation has participated in a new edition of the World Cuisine League and shared her professional and personal experiences since she arrived in Bizkaia.

On the 13th April Bizkaia Talent’s Be Basque Dual Career Centre, a reception service for professionals and their partners arriving to work in the Basque Country, carried out a new online encounter known as the World Cuisine League, aimed at reinforcing the sociocultural integration of the international community.

The protagonist of this latest online encounter was the Russian Mayya Sundukova, Doctor in biophysics and neuroscience and collaborating research worker at the Bizkaia Biophysics Foundation (Fundación Biofísica Bizkaia), who narrated her experiences since her arrival in Bizkaia with her family at the end of 2019 when her husband joined the Iberbasque programme for research workers.

In the first part of the session, Ms Sundokova demonstrated how to prepare the typical Russian dish known as Shuba, a salad made of unskinned Russian herring. This is a traditional dish which originated in Soviet times which “allows us to work creatively and experiment with different ingredients and shapes”, she explained.

After the gastronomic demonstration, the research worker shared with the participants of the event her personal journey, and the obstacles and challenges which she has had to overcome from the time that she left her native Russia to study and live in other countries up to her arrival in Bilbao. According to her testimony, “it’s a journey in which you always lose things, but you also find them and discover neutral zones which enable you to learn and grow as a person, adapting to a new beginning full of opportunities”.

Sundukova emphasised the assistance which she has received from Bizkaia Talent since her arrival. “Bizkaia Talent helped me to orientate my working career and create a network of contacts in the scientific ecosystem of the Basque Country. Thanks to the Be Basque Dual Career Centre service I have been able to continue growing, I have met new people and I have reached the conclusion that a future professional project for me could be to write stories using the experiences of different foreigners to help others”, she concluded.