Interview de Maelle Hardel
Can you say a few words about your research?
Maelle: I’m currently doing my Master’s degree, and I’m going to study vigilance and anxiety behavior in mice: what happens in a mouse’s brain when faced with a potential threat? To find out, we’ll need to determine whether activation of a brain region called the Dorsal Raphe Nucleus is necessary to detect a threat and escape. I imagine you’re all wondering, but no, there’s no eagle in the lab! I will mimic the eagle’s approach with a black disk projected onto a high screen.
Did you always know that you wanted to be a scientist?
Maelle: It was never very clear, because I always loved everything and wanted to do everything. My STEM classes fascinated me, but I loved French just as much, for example. Post-bac, I was accepted everywhere at Parcours sup: psychology, biology, speech therapy, literature and English. And I thought, “Gosh, what am I going to do with my life!”. The psychology degree was pretty general and that’s why I liked it.
My interest in science came later, when I was explaining psychobiology to my classmates. That’s why I went on to do a Masters in Neuroscience.
Why did you decide to switch from a Bachelor’s degree in psychology to a Master’s degree in neuroscience?
Maelle: It was perhaps a bold move on my part. During my undergraduate studies, I realized that I particularly liked biological mechanisms. Psychobiology was my favorite subject. So I said to myself, I’m going for it, and I don’t care if I fail! I gave it a go, and that’s how I ended up here. I love studying emotions, behavior and mental pathologies.
Can you complete the following sentence: “ To do Science you need to … “ Maelle: be curious!
Did you encounter difficulty as a woman to do Sciences? Did you hear that Sciences are not for girls?
Maelle: No, I didn’t feel any difficulty. My promotions at university were mainly female.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Maelle: I still have a lot of doubts, but in the sciences, that’s for sure! On the other hand, I don’t know if I want to do a PhD. I’m afraid I’d get frustrated studying just one subject.
Science popularization is a field that would appeal to me too, and would enable me to work on a multitude of scientific subjects at the same time.
And to finish this portrait, Maelle’s Science in music: what are you listening to on the bench?Maelle: At the moment, I’m listening to Bad Bunny’s “Turista” to motivate me during my analyses.