Humans of TU Delft: Maia Rigot

“My interest in science probably started with my dad noticing that I was a curious kid. Every time I didn’t understand something, I would ask way too many questions. He and my grandfather were the ones that really motivated me to figure things out myself and encouraged me to pursue my interests. I also watched a lot of nature documentaries and was really interested in astronomy because of the way it was portrayed on TV. I realised later on that astronomy is just a small part of the entirety of physics and physics is really what everything is about.

The reason I chose physics is because the most well-know people in physics knew how to portray the most interesting parts of it. They were true science communicators. I feel like that’s something that I would love to do, to inspire other people in the same way. I like the idea of telling people about science and last year I started working at ‘De Physicus’, the journal that is distributed to all students and alumni at the Faculty of Applied Physics. Then I got the opportunity to interview Julia Cramer, who is pretty well known in the field of physics and science communications. I really look up to her.

‘I like the idea of the new’

I also recently got the chance to go to the USA to attend the Envision conference at Princeton University. It was about the ethics and politics surrounding the implementation of new technologies like CRISPR, AI devices and more. I was the only one there from the Netherlands. Before the conference, I got the opportunity to interview the director of the Institute of Advanced Sciences, Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf for ‘De Physicus’ and it was a real honour. To be able to go there and be an ambassador for TU Delft was incredible.

Besides scientific journalism I’m also interested in entrepreneurship, so I’m thinking about starting my own business later on in life. Maybe something using the newest developments in emerging scientific fields. But at this point I’m only brainstorming. I’m sure that I will do a master’s degree, but I don’t know in what field yet. I might choose to study something that would complement my aspirations to go into the world of business and I might just as likely continue to delve deeper into applied physics.

Because I’ve already moved across the Atlantic, moving to new places doesn’t seem like a big step to me anymore. A lot of people that come from the island do the same thing after finishing secondary school. It gave me the experience of integrating into a completely new and alien environment. I like the idea of the new, I don’t think I’m a person that will settle in one place. I don’t think I will spend the rest of my life in one spot.”

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Heather Montague / Freelance writer