Once, when Cristina Izquierdo Lozano (29) went out for drinks, a tipsy stranger walked up to her and asked: ‘Why are you wearing a bald cap?’. Everybody started laughing. ‘I had just done an aerial silks performance in costume and hadn’t had time to take the cap off’, Izquierdo Lozano explains. Aerial silks is a sport in which you perform acrobatics while hanging from long pieces of fabric. ‘I was dressed as Aang from the animation series Avatar: The Last Airbender, including a large blue arrow on my bald head.’

A different path

Izquierdo Lozano tried aerial silks for the first time after she moved from Spain to The Netherlands in 2021 to be a PhD candidate in the Nanoscopy for Nanomedicine-group at Eindhoven University of Technology. Right now, she is a postdoc in the same group. Her research focuses on the use of nanoinformatics to analyse super-resolution microscopy data. ‘With the software I develop, my colleagues can give meaning to their images.’

The nanoinformatician moved countries because group leader Lorenzo Albertazzi transferred from Barcelona to Eindhoven and asked her to join his group there. Izquierdo Lozano was working on her BSc thesis at the time. ‘I have a bachelor’s degree in both biotechnology and computer engineering’, she explains. ‘Starting a PhD without a master’s degree is not the usual path to follow in academia, but Lorenzo made it work with the university committee.’

Bending elements

When Izquierdo Lozano encountered Blue — the Student Pole and Aerial Association — she thought it was the perfect chance to meet new people. Although it was her first time on the silks, the researcher had a head start as she is an experienced rhythmic gymnast. ‘I competed in rhythmic gymnastics throughout my childhood. The flexibility and strength I gained back then turned out to be perfect for aerial silks. I’m not scared of tumbling around either.’

This is exactly what she did during the show, in which Izquierdo Lozano performed as Aang. ‘My show partner dressed up as Katara, another main character in Avatar. We turned our choreography into a story and used the silks to do water, air, and fire bending moves, mimicking the elemental powers that Aang and Katara have.’

Warming up a chair 

During her childhood Izquierdo Lozano put a lot of pressure on herself. Now, she mainly wants to have fun. This shift in mindset shines through in her job. ‘In Spain you are often viewed as a hard worker if you are the first to arrive and the last to leave, but in reality you’re just warming up a chair. I can do the same work in fewer hours if I get my rest in between. This healthier perspective is appreciated and promoted in The Netherlands. It’s important to take care of your mental health and private life.’