Natálie Uhlíková

I come from Klatovy, a small town in southwestern Bohemia. Following four years of at the local grammar school, I transferred to the Johannes Kepler Grammer School in Prague. Prague was a whole new world for me with incredible opportunities, friendly people and unpredictable journeys. For example, I had never before thought I would be dancing the Fledermaus-Quadrille in Žofín Palace or singing an aria in the Renaissance Hall of the Star Villa (Letohrádek Hvězda) in Prague.

I have loved sciences from an early age; I took part in Biology and Chemistry Olympiads and in the research into meadow ecology (Department of Botany of the Faculty of Science, Charles University) while still at high school to get a better idea of what a scientist’s work entails. In addition to biology, I was also intrigued by the study operatic singing. Despite my passion for singing and botany, what attracted me even more was analyzing the world around me down to the atom and explaining the behavior of substances as a whole based on what the atoms were and how they interacted. So I eventually chose chemistry as my future path in life – and I should add that I am not sorry for having done so!

I am now starting my third year of Chemistry at Imperial College London. Following a difficult start, struggling financially and getting used to an unfamiliar environment, I found my second home in London. Studying at ICL is demanding. Our department, chemistry, places emphasis on achieving the highest quantity and quality of the product in a limited amount of time, which used to stress us out in the first year but has become a standard routine by now. I spend my mornings listening to lectures and my afternoons working in labs until the evening, so I barely get to see daylight in the winter months, and I babysit as my part-time job at night. It is manageable, though, and I even find the time to pursue extracurricular activities such as Acrobatic Rock’n’Roll, parkour and the Czecho-Slovak Society at Imperial, where I am the Chair for the academic year 2016/2017.
 
On my holidays I work as an intern at the Skipping Rocks Lab (for the second time now), helping develop and design the ‘Ooho edible water bottles’ – which is water encapsulated in a membrane made of seaweed extracts and calcium. It has been great fun and I look forward to seeing the environmentally friendly and economical Ooho capsules replacing plastic drinking water bottles!

Secondary

Jaroslav Vrchlický Grammar School 2006-2010, then The Johannes Kepler Gymnasium 2010-2014

Tertiary

Imperial College London, U.K., beginning 2014

E-mail:

natalie.uhlikova14@imperial.ac.uk

Goals

Complete my MSci degree at the Imperial College and either participate in research into the recently discovered material known as graphene, or work as a technical consultant.

Interests

Acrobatic Rock’n’Roll, parkour, solo singing, salsa, cheerleading