#NCCRWomen: Maryam Kamgarpour

Why did you choose a scientific career? 

I loved mathematics and physics. I loved learning and I also imagined I would enjoy teaching. I also love to have freedom in what I do, and have a career that allows me to live and work independently, and be able to make choices. A scientific academic career seemed to have all these aspects for me. 

If you weren't a scientist, what would you be? 

Apart from my work, I love nature, music, dancing and poetry. Perhaps I would do something with dance, music, and the outdoors! But I haven’t thought too much about this since I really love what I am doing. 

In simple language, explain what you do for your NCCR. 

All the projects I work on relate to automation. The project with NCCR Automation is on learning in multi-agent systems (so the situation in which more than one learning agent is involved and the agents must work together). This problem arises for example, in electricity markets, or in robotics. In the electricity market for instance, we have a number of people that need to decide on their production/consumption, but they have limited information to make this decision. We are developing learning algorithms, to address this problem. We will also apply them in realistic scenarios, such as collaborative robotics or markets. 

What does your typical day at work look like? 

Hmm… I am still trying to establish a typical day! But generally they are approximately as follows. The mornings are usually for me; I try to save the mornings for reading papers, working on a research problem, informing myself about a topic so I can teach about it, or preparing for a technical talk. The afternoons are usually busy with meetings; with my doctoral students, with the department or with colleagues, answering emails, community tasks such as editorial work or workshop organization, etc. 

What do you like to do outside the lab? 

I love to go hiking. I also love swimming and biking. Currently, I have limited time to do any of that as I am a full-time mom after work. 

What is the worst thing about your chosen career path? 

Research questions stay on my mind for most of my day and it takes me a very long time to come up with a clarity that I am satisfied with. This makes it hard for me to allocate time for some of my hobbies.  

What would you like to say to your younger self about a scientific career? 

Pursue my path confidently. And leave more room for my hobbies. 

Who was your mentor or role model who inspired you? 

I remember when I was in elementary school, I saw a young lady on TV in Iran, a high school student Maryam Mirzakhani. She had received the gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad (and later went on to win the Fields medal). I felt so inspired by her. Apart from that, I found my brother very inspiring. He has a scientific career, and a very well-balanced life, filled with music, friends and laughter. 

We are sharing profiles of women researchers within NCCR Automation as part of the #NCCRWomen campaign. You can find out more about the campaign on YouTube, Twitter or Instagram.