Ekaterina Fishman, a second-year Master’s degree student supervised by the Head of the Department Prof. Revital Bookman, and Dr. Iris Zohar from Tel Hai College, is busy with her environmental study concerning Haifa Bay pollution. Working at Prof. Bookman’s Environmental Sedimentology Lab, Ekaterina is studying sediments in ponds downwind of Haifa Bay and is looking forward to unravel the pollution sources to support management of environmental hazards.

She has many other achievements – for example, being a coauthor of two scientific articles in Earth and Planetary Science Letters and working at Prof. Alex Furman’s chemistry laboratory at Technion. Apart from being a diligent student, Ekaterina is also eager to promote the Department of Marine Geosciences to the other University of Haifa prospective students. That is why she gladly agreed to act as the ambassador of the Department at the Open House event this summer and tell the students about its various opportunities.

Asked what fascinates her the most about the Department, she says that it is the interesting research opportunities. “The topic of my study is very important to Haifa, and I am glad that I get to research it”, Ekaterina says. She was also happy to present the initial findings of her research at the Department-organized Scientific Writing and Communication Conference. “Moreover, there is a big cultural diversity both at the Department and at Prof. Bookman’s laboratory”, Ekaterina adds. “It is really fascinating to work shoulder to shoulder with students from different countries, cultures and religions, and to find out that diversity is uniting people here, not dividing them”.

Talking about her future plans, Ekaterina says that she is looking forward to successfully completing her coursework and Master’s degree thesis, and to receiving the degree. She is sure it will contribute to her professional development and open many career doors for her.