Ukrainian PhD student receives Engagement Scholarship
On December 21, 2022, Ms. Mariana Shumliakivska was awarded the scholarship for outstanding commitment of international students at Goethe University. The award was presented by Prof. Dr. Christiane Thompson, Vice President for Studies, Teaching and Continuing Education, Dr. Monika Duderstadt, Head of the Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Medicine representing Prof. Dr. Stefanie Dimmeler, Mr. Marco Blaszyk, Head of Department Orientation and Advising, International Studies and Ms. Hanna Reuther, Deputy Head of Department Orientation and Advising and Group Leader Student Success and Integration, International Studies.
The scholarship, only introduced in 2019 and funded by the DAAD, is aimed at international students of all disciplines with good academic performance who distinguish themselves through a special commitment in the international context at Goethe University or in its environment to the concerns of international students or to topics of particular intercultural and social relevance.
As a DAAD scholarship holder and graduate of the Master’s program in Molecular Medicine with the final grade „very good“ last year, Ms. Shumliakivska is currently employed as a doctoral student at the Institute for Cardlovascular Regeneration of the Department of Medicine with Professor Stefanie Dimmeler and is studying medicine at the same time as a second student with the degree of Staatsexamen.
Ms. Shumliakivska’s major social and intercultural commitment lies in her outreach to her Ukrainian compatriots back home since spring 2022 as a result of the Ukraine war.
Ms. Shumliakivska, who comes from Zhytomyr, about 140 kilometers from Kiev, is an active member of the Ukrainian Medical Association Germany e.V. and has founded an initiative ‚Doctors for the Ukrainians‘ together with three fellow students. The aim of the initiative is to provide medical and humanitarian aid to war-affected towns and clinics in Ukraine. She has also worked in the hospital in the war zone herself. The Frankfurter Rundschau has already reported on the initiative. In the Rhine-Main area, the initiative ‚Frankfurt for Ukraine‘ continues to collect medicines, bandages and medical equipment for Ukraine. Currently, medical equipment is urgently needed on a large scale, also in used condition. For more information and to register, please click on the following link: https://frankfurt-for-ukraine.de . On the Niederrad campus, the university clinics and the janitor are providing support, but citizens and neighbors are also getting involved. Via the Ukrainian community and the Ukrainian Medical Association, the relief supplies reach Lviv and from there onwards.
In her PhD thesis, she is now investigating the extent to which somatic mutations in hematopoietic stem cells leading to clonal expansion (so-called „Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential“, CHIP) affect fibrosis in the heart. This project is based on clinical observations of Professor Zeiher’s and Professor Dimmeler’s group showing that these mutations contribute to a worse prognosis of patients with myocardial insufficiency.
