Martina Mascioni, PhD

What’s the work that you do?

I am a phytoplankton ecologist and taxonomist, which means I work on identifying Antarctic microalgae drifting in the sunlit ocean. I then try to understand how these microalgae change through time and space due to changes in environmental conditions. I spend hours counting and identifying phytoplankton in water samples under a microscope. I am also a teaching assistant at the university teaching protist and fungal biology to third year biology students.

What keeps you going?

I love my job and I am passionate about nature and conservation. I can spend hours looking at the microscope but I also enjoy the time working in the field. One of the things that inspires me is teaching and doing outreach. Sharing what I do in the lab with the rest of society and having people understand how important my work is gives meaning to my research. One of the things I love as a researcher in the FjordPhyto citizen science project is working on tourist ships doing sampling on board and giving informative talks to passengers.

What’s your message to the world?

“Life is a symbiotic and cooperative union that allows those who associate to succeed.” I really like this quote from Lynn Margulis. She was an amazing evolutionary biologist but also an amazing science communicator and an amazing woman. She has inspired me throughout my career as a biologist. This quote comes from microbiology but it applies to our everyday lives. In my research and in my life I always try to work with other people. I believe that we are social animals, and to be successful we need to work together.