{"id":8,"date":"2018-09-18T09:02:45","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T09:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/about\/"},"modified":"2023-03-08T04:31:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T04:31:40","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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About<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u00a0All the doors are open. What are you waiting for?<\/i>
– a stranger<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>

Many years ago, I was standing in front of a building waiting for the bell to ring and for someone to open the door for me. A stranger walked in the building, looked back at me and asked why am I waiting. She may have used these exact words, maybe not. It was a while ago but the words, their meaning, stayed with me.\u00a0I share this story because a) is true, and b) has changed the way I approach life. I value authenticity. I value the ability to shake off setbacks and use the learnings to start fresh and with better ideas. I can think of at least a dozen of examples when this stranger’s words helped me re-assess, find my true north, and move on.<\/span>\u00a0And when I am in full swing, everybody knows about it because the energy radiates from inside out.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Science<\/em>. I was a researcher for good 10 years who travelled around the world,\u00a0<\/span>published books and papers,\u00a0<\/span>collaborated with many teams. This was the time when I learnt how to create opportunities and think laterally. I received my doctoral degree in Pharmacy from the Medical University of Sofia, although I had no background in pharmacy. Instead of being scared of what I didn’t know, I used my strengths and created a unique PhD pathway that brought together several branches of science and in 2015, I received an award for best research in pharmacy.\u00a0<\/span>I spent over a year in beautiful Zurich as a research fellow,\u00a0where my work got picked up by the Swiss Embassy in Bulgaria; together we\u00a0created\u00a0a case study about my project.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

New country; blank slate<\/em>. I didn’t know what to expect when I moved to Australia right after my PhD. Without opportunities to develop in the area I wanted, I got immersed in impact-focused\u00a0roles in industry<\/span>\u00a0engagement and program management. What I loved about my work was the ability to conect with science in a different way and learn from this experience. I was at the coalface when the Biologics Innovation Facility at UTS was in the making, spending long hours in meetings with architects, project managers, researchers and industry. I initiated and co-designed programs in Macquarie University that inspired culture change. Later on, I found myself on a leadership program in Macquarie University imagining how the UN Sustainable Development Goals can drive partnerships with the university.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Back to research<\/em>. Recent events, though, helped me realise that my true passion, my heart and mind is in science. But how one goes about going back to research after a career break? A career break may look like this unsurmountable barrier, like a door that is locked and key is nowhere to be found. After more than a year, I might have just found it.<\/p>

Where to next . . . well, \u00a0check back soon; hopefully I will have something exciting to share.<\/span><\/p>

Until then, or until we connect to create great things together.<\/span><\/p>

Pavlina<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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About \u00a0All the doors are open. What are you waiting for?– a stranger Many years ago, I was standing in front of a building waiting for the bell to ring and for someone to open the door for me. A stranger walked in the building, looked back at me and asked why am I waiting. …<\/p>\n

About<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"enabled","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":187,"href":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1360,"href":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pavlina-chan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}