Ukrainian researcher Dr Kateryna Terletska has spent her career deciphering oceanic mysteries and engaging young people in science. Everything changed when the Russian invasion brought war to her doorstep.
Kateryna Terletska has always been a problem solver. As a child, she immersed herself in puzzles, riddles and mysteries, and it was this insatiable curiosity that led her to science. “Being a scientist is like being a detective,” the Kyiv-based mathematician and physicist told The Brilliant. “It’s always about going from fairy tale, legend or mystery to a point of discovery.”
With a focus on hydromechanics (the mechanics of fluids), Terletska is investigating extreme internal waves in oceans – a poorly understood natural phenomenon that can hinder maritime navigation and damage underwater facilities. Studies of these waves can inform measures to mitigate such impacts, while also providing valuable insights into the effects of climate change. “These waves are hidden to the naked eye, yet with amplitudes of up to 100 metres, they can have a huge impact,” says Terletska, who holds a Dr. Habil, the highest academic award in many European countries, in hydromechanics.
For centuries, internal solitary waves were the stuff of maritime myth and legend. Roman leader and naturalist Pliny the Elder, for example, attributed the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra by Octavian’s weaker fleet in the Battle of Actium in 31BC to an all-powerful sucking fish.
It was not until Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen set off on a polar expedition in 1893 that the first scientific observations of such waves were recorded. In the icy waters of northern Siberia, The Fram, a state-of-the-art ship constructed for the journey, was stalled by a strange force. Referring to it as dødvann, the ‘dead-water effect’, Nansen hypothesised that it was the result of fresh water layering on top of salt water, a phenomenon that occurs when snow and ice from mountains slide into the sea.
Scientists have since studied the way that internal solitary waves transfer heat, energy and momentum through the ocean. Terletska is one of a small number of researchers who are seeking to better understand their profound effects on the climate and marine ecosystems.
She is also committed to popularising science among teenagers in Ukraine. “Few people want to do research in Ukraine because it’s not so fashionable, especially for women,” says Terletska. Awards, such as L’Oréal-UNESCO’s Women in Science, and interviews with scientists in magazines such as Vogue and other “juicy educational content and visualisations” have been helping to change that, she says.
But today, the world of ‘fashionable science’ seems far away, as war rages in Ukraine, with implications for Europe and the wider world.
War, loss and the impact on education and science
When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Terletska was faced with a harrowing choice: to stay in Ukraine, or flee to a safer place with her two young children. After hiding in a basement in Kyiv while bombs fell nearby, she made the devastating decision to leave her parents and husband behind and take her sons to Austria. They joined over eight million people who have been displaced from Ukraine into Europe since the start of the war, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR.
The decision has left Terletska conflicted. “In any situation, you feel that you are doing wrong,” she says. “But I am a mum first. If it wasn’t for my children, I would definitely have stayed.”
Terletska’s research now continues in Linz, Austria, at Johannes Kepler University (JKU), one of the many European institutions that have opened their doors to Ukrainian scientists fleeing the conflict. Like many other Ukrainian scientists who have had to upend their lives, she is grateful. However, it has been tough to focus on work when her loved ones and colleagues at home are faced with the devastation of the war. “People are really depressed,” says Terletska. “They are not thinking about science.”
In addition to her research, Terletska continues to fulfil her teaching commitments online to students of Ukraine’s Junior Academy of Sciences, where she is head of mathematical sciences. “I am amazed by their resilience. A lot of them are really patriotic and they want to stay in Ukraine with their bright minds,” she says. “But the situation is tenuous. People live and learn in basements, often with no internet connection or electricity, and with bombs falling above.”
Although some regions in Ukraine have been harder hit than others, the destruction of the country’s cultural, scientific and education infrastructure has been widespread. In a recent statement from Ukraine’s Ministry of Science & Education, since the start of the invasion, Russian strikes have damaged 2,619 education institutions and destroyed 406, killing 450 children and wounding 867. In addition, attacks on electricity infrastructure, as well as a lack of appropriate equipment, continue to impact remote learning. 450 children have been killed and 867 wounded.
Funding and government support for scientific research is much scarcer, too, and salary cuts are accelerating the brain drain abroad, or into higher paying fields such as IT. On a panel discussion at Falling Walls in Berlin last October, Ukrainian theoretical physicist Oleksiy Kolezhuk stressed the need to support human capital with more funding.
Initiatives such as the EU-backed Ukrainian Global University, which was launched by the Kyiv School of Economics in March 2022, are helping. So far, 60 institutions from around the world have committed to supporting Ukrainian students, academics and tutors. But more work is needed to shore up the future of Ukrainian science and education.
Terletska worries for the future of her work, and that of other scientists who are committed to better understanding the ocean and its effect on global climate. Extreme internal waves have an important role to play in regulating ocean temperatures because of the way they draw colder water from deeper layers to mix with warmer surface layers. “Ocean mixing may not solve climate change, but it helps us to understand some small elements of the puzzle,” says Terletska.
As to when she will be able to continue her work back home, Terletska cannot say, but she is clear on one thing. “I want to go back to rebuild Ukraine as soon as I can,” she says.
Article by Pamela Whitby