Dagnija Loča, Leading Researcher at the Riga Technical University (RTU) Institute of General Chemical Engineering; Director of the RTU Rūdolfs Cimdiņš Riga Biomaterials Innovations and Development Centre; and Academic Professor at the Latvian Academy of Sciences, had no intention of being a scientist when she was younger. She had decided to become a journalist, but was unable to be in Riga on the date of the entrance exam. Because of this, she decided to study materials science and is now enjoying the fruits of her labour.
Loča was completely sure that she was going to be an investigative journalist and was attending special courses to prepare. A friend invited her to spend a month visiting her in Germany, right when the entrance exam was scheduled. Not wanting to miss the chance to travel, Loča started looking for programmes with earlier entrance exams.
Materials science caught her eye. She spent six months diligently studying physics and chemistry, successfully passed her entrance exams for the RTU Faculty of Chemistry, and began her studies in materials sciences that autumn. Although Loča was still unsure during her bachelor’s degree whether materials science was the right path for her, the modern laboratories she saw on an exchange programme in Germany showed her that this is an extremely interesting field in which to continue her studies. “You can’t predict everything in life,” concludes Loča now.
Choosing to develop science in Latvia
Several years ago, Loča and her husband Jānis Ločs thought about moving to Australia to work but decided to remain in Latvia.
“Our home and everything that we like is here. That’s why we decided to forge our science careers in Latvia. I have never regretted it. We have never had fewer opportunities because we didn’t emigrate,” she emphasises.
If they had both left, on returning several years later it would have been more difficult to start everything from scratch and create a network of contacts. But Loča states that this scenario is also possible. For example, her colleague Kristaps Kļaviņš defended his dissertation in Austria and worked abroad for 10 years before returning recently with the aid of a Marie Curie grant, and he successfully continues his career in Latvia today.
Preparing for her own and others’ old age
People age, and Loča also suffers from aches and pains in her back or knee from time to time. She hopes to live to 100, so she is working on creating biomaterials which could one day help to heal bones.
“I am trying to create biomaterials that will fight osteoporosis and bone cancer,” explains Loča.
Creating these types of materials is a long process. First, they have to be thought of and developed, then they must be tested and undergo complex certification. “I first have to prove these materials scientifically, then commercially. We are working towards one day selling the licence to produce the material or use it in a startup. I hope that when I’m 60 I will be able to sit on my balcony, drink wine and be happy that the materials I developed are helping people somewhere in the world,” says Loča.
She owns patents to technologies for producing porous biomaterials and for producing a dense ceramic material without using a high heat. A third patent is currently awaiting confirmation, and this is for a technology enabling calcium phosphate bone material to be injected, promoting natural bone regeneration.
We can make implants from eggs
To make synthetic bone, we do not always need synthetic materials. We can also use natural materials which are seen as waste.
“One person’s trash is another person’s ingredient for making new materials,” says Loča.
“Waste-to-resource: eggshells as a source for next generation biomaterials for bone regeneration” is one of the projects within the Baltic Research Programme supported financially by the European Economic Area grants, funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, and being coordinated by Loča. She explains that, in the egg processing industry, most eggs are used to obtain the liquid egg product. The byproducts of this processing are shells and shell membranes, which are very expensive for businesses to dispose of, so companies are interested in processing these into commercial products with high added value.
For this project, chicken egg shells are used to make new, porous, ceramic foundations similar to natural bone tissue. In the futures, these could be used for making implants to be used when regenerating bone tissue. Researchers from RTU, the University of Oslo, Reykjavik University and Tallinn University of Technology have been working towards this goal together.
Latvians rarely pursue a PhD
Only 0.4% of Latvians aged between 25 and 64 have a PhD, according to the latest study entitled The Further Career of PhD Graduates, published in 2019. Meanwhile, the EU average among the 23 member states is 1.1%. We are usually compared to Estonia, where 0.7% of inhabitants have a PhD, but the figure in Slovenia is even higher, at 3.8%. Similarly, the European average for percentage of GDP invested in research and development is 2.26%, while this figure in Latvia is just 0.69%.
Loča believes that the problem appears in the period between a master’s and a PhD. “A lot of hard work is needed to achieve things in any field. That’s normal. But in order to climb the career ladder in science, you also need a PhD. That’s why both men and women rarely choose to pursue a PhD. Furthermore, women want a family and already begin thinking about getting a stable job and not pursuing a PhD after their master’s,” Loča has noticed.
She believes that Latvia is on the right path towards encouraging young people to climb the science career ladder. Many activities have been initiated to promote understanding among young people of the sciences and the extensive opportunities they offer.
“By showing them our everyday work and our modern laboratories, we show them that science isn’t as awful as bad comedies tell us. It is important to embolden young people to study complicated subjects, even if they are difficult. As long as you enjoy it, it doesn’t matter if there is something you don’t fully understand. The rest can be learned,” says Loča.
The misconception that you cannot earn good money in science is also unfounded. She believes that it all depends on your capacity and appetite for work: the more you do, the more you can achieve, and therefore the more you can earn. “If you want to come to work at 10 a.m., take a three-hour lunch and leave work at five, you have to settle for a certain budget. But if your whole heart is in science, and you sometimes work on weekends, then you can earn and not worry about money,” says Loča.
Photo: Vitālijs Vinogradovs, RTU