Oxana and Alexander Volkov are second-year master’s degree students at the Faculty of Chemistry. They first met when they were first-year bachelor’s degree students, but at that moment they did not show much interest in each other. They started dating two years later, when Alxander offered to help Oxana with her books from the library. That’s how their love story started.
“Sasha wanted to get married three months after we started dating. I was 19 and I knew it would be a great shock for my father. So, I said let’s wait a year. Exactly one year after, he proposed”, said Oxana.
At the moment, they are both studying and working at the Department of Analytical Chemistry. Oxana teaches students of secondary vocational education programmes and Alexander is a senior research assistant. They also conduct their research together. Oxana studies amino acid solutions by means of electrodialysis, and Alexander focuses on chiral separation of amino acids and the use of machine learning for analysing the absorption of carbon dioxide by various sorbents.
“I’ve worked with Pavel Kulintsov, Director General of OOO NPO Membranes (I was introduced to him by research advisor Tatiana Eliseeva). There I worked with an industrial electrodialysis unit. My task was to purify betaine and cottage cheese whey used in the food industry by means of electrodialysis”, said Oxana.
Alexander studies the sorption of carbon dioxide on metal-organic coordination polymers:
“These substances were first obtained about 25 years ago. Due to large surface and selectivity to carbon dioxide, they are good for trapping the gas. There are over 100,000 such structures now. So, if we analyse the data, we can determine the way they can absorb carbon dioxide.
In their research, both Oxana and Alexander analyse amino acids. Sometimes they argue, because Alexander focuses on theory, while Oxana’s research is of a more applied nature.
“We manage to keep the work-life balance. We commute together to and from university. We have the same friends, so we are always together”, said Oxana.
“We try to explain things to each other if we don't understand something. We support each other in our scientific investigations: I help Oxana to prepare solutions and she looks after my equipment in the laboratory”, said Alexander.
The couple are about to defend their master’s theses. Alexander wants to continue his studies and enrol on a PhD programme.
“The competition is rather tight at our faculty. I have several publications and three certificates of state registration of a computer programme. And I am about to publish some more articles and programmes”, said Alexander.
Oxana has not yet made up her mind whether to continue working as a teacher or try to find a job in the industrial sector. She likes her current job and finds working with students inspiring.
“I am now preparing my husband for the PhD programme”, joked Oxana.
Besides teaching at university, Alexander also wants to commercialise the results of his studies:
“We have a lot of ideas, but we still need to find applications for them. I’d like the results of my research to be really useful.”
Oxana hopes she will be a good specialist and a loving wife and mother. No matter what life has in store, the young people believe that together they can reach any goal.
