Alumni Spotlight: Aleksei Maksimov - BSc Biology 2024
BSc Biology alumnus Aleksei Maksimov reflects on the inspirations, opportunities, and experiences at Queen Mary that shaped his journey from undergraduate study to cutting-edge bioscience research.
What inspired you to study Biology at Queen Mary?
At first, I was considering studying physiotherapy, but fell out of love with that. Fortunately, at the time, I had an amazing biology teacher at A-level who was one year out from retirement but still had an incredible enthusiasm for the subject, especially for the finer details that make systems work. That motivated me to pursue the subject. Queen Mary provided me with a great opportunity to do that as it had a great balance between theory and practical work, and plenty of opportunities to build new skills. I enjoyed the wet lab practicals and learning coding, statistics, and data analysis, which has been useful for life after university. There are also many great researchers at the university across different areas of life sciences, which made me excited about the possibility of learning from experts and exploring different topics before deciding on a direction.
Can you share some highlights from your time at Queen Mary?
Honestly, there are so many things to choose from. I met so many incredible people, from classmates to staff, who were all supportive and welcoming. I had the privilege of being involved in helping to design a rocket for the Mach-24 rocketry competition with the Aurora Initiative Rocketry Society, by designing a biological experiment which would have been launched up to an apogee of 3000m, as well as designing the part of the rocket where the experiment would have been housed. Unfortunately, due to logistics, we did not travel to Scotland to launch the rocket, but it was definitely a unique experience that stretched me in different ways. And of course, helping to restart the Biological Sciences Society and to eventually take over as president, and to lead the society to win multiple awards from the Students' Union for the first time, including the Sustainability Impact award, which was very important for us. Another highlight is the final year research project under the Mullineaux group, which was challenging but incredibly rewarding, and I learnt so much not only about the research topic but also about myself, and that project has driven me to pursue research.
What was your favourite thing about Queen Mary?
What I liked most was the variety of opportunities available. There was always something happening on campus, whether it was societies, research projects, or workshops, and SBBS offered plenty of ways to develop skills beyond lectures, such as coding club and seminars. There is a lot of freedom with what you want to do with your degree, and the potential module choices reflected this. It allowed me to tailor my time to my interests and to build the skills and knowledge I need for moving on.
Finally, what are you up to now? And how did your time here help shape your career path up to this point?
I’m currently pursuing an MRes in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at Imperial College London. My first lab rotation is under Prof. Bill Rutherford FRS, and I am working on far-red photosynthesis and chlorophyll d. It is hugely exciting, and I am using some of the techniques that I learnt during my final year project under the Mullineaux group but also many new techniques particularly on the structural side. I would be nowhere near as confident in doing this without what I learnt during the final year project but also the various lab classes and writing assignments during the three years at Queen Mary.