Voices from Ukraine: Nataliya Vaisfel'd of the Solidarity for Mathematicians programme
Episode description
Professor Nataliya Vaisfel’d was until recently Head of the Chair of methods of mathematical physics at Odesa I. I. Mechnykov National University. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at King’s College London. Forced to flee Ukraine after the Russian invasion of her home country in February of this year, Nataliya has since travelled across Europe with her wheelchair-bound mother and their dogs, eventually finding sanctuary in Britain in part thanks to INI’s "Solidarity for mathematicians" programme.
This podcast tells Nataliya’s story in her own words.
00:00 - Introduction
01:00 - Travelling across Europe, finding a place to live and work
13:30 - Fleeing Ukraine as a refugee ("our generation... we only saw this in some films, movies about the second World War")
18:20 - "If now it is terrible, and it seems to you absolutely dark around you, and you can't see something ahead... believe. You should trust. It will return and you will see some light. Sure. Absolutely. Never, never, never surrender."