Lucie Nurdin grew up in a small village of the French countryside in Burgundy (Bourgogne). She moved to Paris to continue her post secondary education. Here, she entered the École Normale Supérieure of Paris, where she received both her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science. After a short visit at the Simon Fraser University (British Columbia, Canada) as a exchange student in the Storr group, Lucie joined the Piers group at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) where she received her PhD in 2020. Lucie is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology in the Peters group (California, USA) where she is developing molecular catalysts for N₂ fixation using earth-abundant metals.

Politics has always been a very important topic in Lucie’s life, mainly because it is constantly discussed in the French media and in her family. “My grandfather always told me I was made for a political career, mainly because I wasn’t a shy girl and spoke my mind.” Even though she did not follow her grandfather’s advice (yet) and went to pursue a scientific career instead, she got more interested in politics when she saw her scientific idol, Dr. Villani, elected at the French National Assembly. “Villani made me realize that scientists have a crucial role to play in politics, from developing argument-based policy to being able to conduct a debate. In my opinion, scientists are a necessity for tomorrow’s politics and yet, they are definitely underrepresented in the political sphere”.

Lucie is impressed by the amount of people who volunteered for Elect STEM as soon as it went public. “It is amazing to see that I am not the only one who thinks that having scientists into politics is a necessity for our democracy and our future”. Too often, scientists believe that going into politics is a waste of their skills and time. She believes the opposite: “We need scientists everywhere to bridge the gap between different world that in general interact too little”. Volunteering for Elect STEM has helped her connect with more like-minded people and gave her the opportunity to dive deeper into politics. In particular, she is working on a new blog series, “Scientists in Politics Around the World”, where she narrates the path of worldwide renown politicians with a STEM background and how their STEM background has helped in their political careers.

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