Sci.STEPS is a new mentoring program for undergraduates, graduates, and young scientists looking to build their lives and careers consciously, find desired positions in academia and industry, and become confident in the application process.

Our approach is to create a platform for mentees and mentors to meet, provide the tools for productive communication, and help them solve any arising problems. While the responsibility for a fruitful mentee-mentor relationship is shared between mentees and mentors, our role is to provide comfortable conditions for the mentorship and interaction between all participants of the program. Additionaly, we increase the program’s value by inviting expert speakers and organising training events.

Our mentors are volunteers from different countries with experience in relocation and accomplishing international training programs (undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, internships), equipped with insights into building a successful career in their scientific field.

We believe that successful mentoring is founded on an individual approach. Mentees are matched with mentors who suit them best according to their particular scientific profile and career goals. During the pairing process, we take into account the mentee's wishes about the preferred mentor as much as possible.

We collect a pool of mentors, review applications, and connect mentors and mentees. We offer special lectures and seminars for participants and graduates of the program, which can help your career development.

Contact us
… to propose cooperation in holding a seminar/lecture, to ask a question, or to leave feedback.

Organizers of the program are scientists from different countries and fields of research. We have teamed up for one mission — helping as many young and up-and-coming scientists as possible.

Evgeniya Vorobyeva

Program coordination Technology Lead in a startup in the green hydrogen energy sector (Lausanne, Switzerland) MSc in Physical Chemistry, MSU (Moscow, Russia); PhD in Chemical Engineering, ETH Zürich (Switzerland) Catalysis, porous materials, electrochemistry, and electrocatalysis

Mariia Kuzina

Content creation and management PhD student at KIT (Karlsruhe, Germany) MSc in Materials Sciences, MSU (Moscow, Russia) Surface chemistry, polymer chemistry, materials science, and 3D printing

Julia Kolodiazhnaia

Operational support PhD student at Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark) MSc in Chemistry, Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark); BSc in Chemistry, Physics and Mechanics of Materials, MSU (Moscow, Russia) Organic synthesis, transition metal catalysis, electrochemistry, and electrocatalysis

Ilya Flyamer

Communication with mentors Postdoctoral researcher at FMI (Basel, Switzerland) PhD, the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, United Kingdom); Diploma in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, MSU (Moscow, Russia) Spatial organization of the genome, gene expression regulation

Valentin Slepukhin

Operations lead Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany) PhD in Physics, UCLA (Los Angeles, USA); MSc in Physics, MIPT (Moscow, Russia) Soft matter physics, computational neuroscience, microbial evolution

Olga Sanina

Technical support PhD student at the Technical University of Darmstadt (Darmstadt, Germany) MSc in Computer Science and Computer Engineering; BSc in Information Security, NSTU (Novosibirsk, Russia) Real-world protocols, privacy and trust in user-based protocols, quantitative linguistics in cryptography

Ivan Smirnov

Technical support Assistant Professor at University of Mannheim (Mannheim, Germany) PhD, Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia); MSc in Life Science, Université Paris Cité (Paris, France); Diploma in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Saint Petersburg State University (Saint Petersburg, Russia) Computational social science, AI, NLP. gender equality, education

Svetlana Tymchenko

Communication with mentees Associate professor at Medical Academy (Simferopol). Researcher at the laboratory of medical ecological monitoring. Scientific advisor of university’s student scientific association M.D. in Neurology, Lviv National Medical University (Lviv, Ukraine); Diploma in Neurology, Crimea State Medical University (Simferopol, Ukraine) Neuroscience, human physiology of visceral systems, ecological physiology, and medicine

Maria Vasina

Coaching, coordination of educational content PhD Student at MISIS (Moscow, Russia); certified coach (ACTP, ICF). MEng in Metallurgy, MISIS (Moscow, Russia); Diploma in Material Science, Bauman Moscow State Technical University (Moscow, Russia) Development of new aluminum alloying systems

Olya Vvedenskaya

Program adviser, community manager Science Communication Officer in Lipotype (Dresden, Germany), co-founder of Dragongfly Mental Health (USA) Biophysicist at Pirogov Medical University, PhD at the Humboldt University of Berlin, a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden Mental health in academia, multiomics in liver cancer research, lipidomics of pre-cancerous liver conditions

We are grateful to the photographer Alex Tselmin for taking our photos

Sci.STEPS is a non-profit charity project. We pursue the policy of personal, cultural, religious, national, and political tolerance.

Mentors, mentees, and organizers participating in the program do not act as representatives of any organizations.

Sci.STEPS is not an educational organization. The mentoring services in the program do not count as psychological (therapeutical) counseling.