Dr Irina Higgins Fold Woman
Posted by marie@thefoldlondon.com BigCommerce on 20th Feb 2024
EVERY FOLD WOMAN HAS A UNIQUE STORY TO TELL
EVERY FOLD WOMAN HAS A UNIQUE STORY TO TELL
‘NEVER HIDE YOUR TRUE SELF.’
HER STORY
DR IRINA HIGGINS
Russian neuroscientist and former fashion model Dr Irina Higgins taught herself to code when she was 11, using a friend’s computer to build her own games. Now she builds artificial intelligence systems that can outperform the human brain.
ON HER CHILDHOOD: I grew up in Russia, near Moscow. My mother gave up her career as a military journalist and threw herself into raising me and my younger brother. Every day, we’d have a packed schedule of activities, exercises and lessons. By the time I was four, I could play the piano and speak three languages: Russian, Armenian and English.
We grew up in the 90s, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, so life was tough – at one point there was no food in the shops – but we were always taught to make the best of things and be grateful for what we had. I taught myself to code when I was 11. My brother and I would muck around on a friend’s computer and use Microsoft BASIC to create our own games. We’d load them onto floppy discs and sell them to our friends at school.
ON FINDING HER PATH: Things appeared to be going downhill in Russia so I moved to the UK and studied Experimental Psychology at Westminster University. In my third year, I worked as an academic researcher at the Theoretical Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Oxford University, and something just clicked; I felt like I belonged. Every conversation was just so stimulating. Even though I wasn’t officially a student there, I attended all the lectures for an MSc in Neuroscience. I went on to do a DPhil there.
ON JUDGEMENT: I’ve spent too much time trying to please others and have often hidden the parts of me that people don’t expect to see. During my studies, I was “spotted” in London and ended up working as a fashion model. Despite being told I needed to lose weight – and living on a diet of cucumbers for a couple of months – I enjoyed it. It was fun. And yet I kept it quiet. I was worried it would be seen as frivolous; that people would think, “That’s not what a scientist is supposed to do.”
HER STORY
DR IRINA HIGGINS
DR IRINA HIGGINS
Russian neuroscientist and former fashion model Dr Irina Higgins taught herself to code when she was 11, using a friend’s computer to build her own games. Now she builds artificial intelligence systems that can outperform the human brain.
Russian neuroscientist and former fashion model Dr Irina Higgins taught herself to code when she was 11, using a friend’s computer to build her own games. Now she builds artificial intelligence systems that can outperform the human brain.
ON HER CHILDHOOD: I grew up in Russia, near Moscow. My mother gave up her career as a military journalist and threw herself into raising me and my younger brother. Every day, we’d have a packed schedule of activities, exercises and lessons. By the time I was four, I could play the piano and speak three languages: Russian, Armenian and English.
We grew up in the 90s, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, so life was tough – at one point there was no food in the shops – but we were always taught to make the best of things and be grateful for what we had. I taught myself to code when I was 11. My brother and I would muck around on a friend’s computer and use Microsoft BASIC to create our own games. We’d load them onto floppy discs and sell them to our friends at school.
ON FINDING HER PATH: Things appeared to be going downhill in Russia so I moved to the UK and studied Experimental Psychology at Westminster University. In my third year, I worked as an academic researcher at the Theoretical Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Oxford University, and something just clicked; I felt like I belonged. Every conversation was just so stimulating. Even though I wasn’t officially a student there, I attended all the lectures for an MSc in Neuroscience. I went on to do a DPhil there.
‘I’ve spent too much time trying to please others and have often hidden the parts of me that people don’t expect to see.’
‘I’ve spent too much time trying to please others and have often hidden the parts of me that people don’t expect to see.’
‘I’ve spent too much time trying to please others and have often hidden the parts of me that people don’t expect to see.’
ON GENDER: I’m frequently the only woman in the room (or lab). When I was at Oxford, I wanted to build a poker-playing AI but, to do that, I first needed to learn how to play. I used small stakes games online to hone my skills – and kept on improving. At one point, I was winning about £300 a month, which is a decent supplementary income for a student! When I went to a casino in Vegas, people just assumed I couldn’t play because I was a woman: I quadrupled my money, left the table and went shopping.
ON HER CURRENT CAREER: Following internships at Google and Goldman Sachs, I joined DeepMind in 2015, an AI company aiming to solve intelligence to advance science and humanity. As a staff research scientist, my job is to build algorithms that can do anything that the human brain can do – to the same level or better.
ON STAYING SANE: I got into yoga during lockdown and now I practice every morning from the roof of my flat in Marylebone. I’ve been binge-reading Outlander, the series of historical fantasy novels by American author Diana Gabaldon, and re-watching 90s TV shows such as Seinfeld, Friends and Father Ted.
ON HER STYLE: I have a split personality when it comes to style. For work, I’ll wear jeans or leather trousers. There’s a real startup vibe at DeepMind; the dress code is definitely casual. For play, I love the glitz, glamour and full-blown romanticism of ballroom gowns: cinched waists, bodices and full, flowing skirts. I started ballroom dancing during my DPhil and went on to compete nationally, winning the Inter Varsity Dance Championships. Now I attend regular balls at The Oxford and Cambridge Club, a members’ club on Pall Mall. It’s a chance to get my hair and make-up done, put on a beautiful gown, and escape for the evening.
ON HER MOST POWERFUL
PIECE OF ADVICE FOR OTHER WOMEN:
‘In ballroom dancing, it’s very easy to lose your balance and rely on your partner to hold you up. But you need to get comfortable standing on your own two feet. That applies in life, too.’
ON JUDGEMENT: I’ve spent too much time trying to please others and have often hidden the parts of me that people don’t expect to see. During my studies, I was “spotted” in London and ended up working as a fashion model. Despite being told I needed to lose weight – and living on a diet of cucumbers for a couple of months – I enjoyed it. It was fun. And yet I kept it quiet. I was worried it would be seen as frivolous; that people would think, “That’s not what a scientist is supposed to do.”
ON GENDER: I’m frequently the only woman in the room (or lab). When I was at Oxford, I wanted to build a poker-playing AI but, to do that, I first needed to learn how to play. I used small stakes games online to hone my skills – and kept on improving. At one point, I was winning about £300 a month, which is a decent supplementary income for a student! When I went to a casino in Vegas, people just assumed I couldn’t play because I was a woman: I quadrupled my money, left the table and went shopping.
ON HER CURRENT CAREER: Following internships at Google and Goldman Sachs, I joined DeepMind in 2015, an AI company aiming to solve intelligence to advance science and humanity. As a staff research scientist, my job is to build algorithms that can do anything that the human brain can do – to the same level or better.
‘As a staff research scientist, my job is to build algorithms that can do anything that the human brain can do – to the same level or better.’
‘As a staff research scientist, my job is to build algorithms that can do anything that the human brain can do – to the same level or better.’
ON STAYING SANE: I got into yoga during lockdown and now I practice every morning from the roof of my flat in Marylebone. I’ve been binge-reading Outlander, the series of historical fantasy novels by American author Diana Gabaldon, and re-watching 90s TV shows such as Seinfeld, Friends and Father Ted.
ON HER STYLE: I I have a split personality when it comes to style. For work, I’ll wear jeans or leather trousers. There’s a real startup vibe at DeepMind; the dress code is definitely casual. For play, I love the glitz, glamour and full-blown romanticism of ballroom gowns: cinched waists, bodices and full, flowing skirts. I started ballroom dancing during my DPhil and went on to compete nationally, winning the Inter Varsity Dance Championships. Now I attend regular balls at The Oxford and Cambridge Club, a members’ club on Pall Mall. It’s a chance to get my hair and make-up done, put on a beautiful gown, and escape for the evening.
ON HER MOST POWERFUL PIECE OF ADVICE TO OTHER WOMEN
‘In ballroom dancing, it’s very easy to lose your balance and rely on your partner to hold you up. But you need to get comfortable standing on your own two feet. That applies in life, too.’
‘In ballroom dancing, it’s very easy to lose your balance and rely on your partner to hold you up. But you need to get comfortable standing on your own two feet. That applies in life, too.’