Graduated from the Krasnoyarsk State University (Russia) with M.Sc. degree in physics and teaching. Received her Ph.D. in theoretical biophysics from the Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk. When her family moved to the US, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate and research scientist at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago), HMS (Harvard Medical School) and Stony Brook University. Marina has been running the SchoolNova enrichment program since the opening of the program in 2004.