Maria Semenova graduated from Moscow State University, Biology Department and specialized in Ihtiology. Working at the Institute of ecology problems and evolution and then at the Institute for information transmission problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences she participated at several scientific expeditions in Far East (Camchatka, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands) and White Sea region. Maria is an authors of several scientific papers and articles.
Last ten years Maria was working in collaboration with several foreign documentary movie making companies (Atlantic Seltic Films, BBC, Probe TV, HBO). Working as a producer and film researcher she created a number of movies shooting in Moscow, Zvezdni Gorodok, Sarov, Baikonur, Zhukovski, Gagarin, Yaroslavl, Yalta, Engels etc. She also participated as an adviser in HBO feature film in Romania.
One more field of Maria’s interests is the history of Atomic project. She is a producer of some documental films on this matter, took part the International Symposium – History of Atomic Project and was also involved in organization of several conferences and other events at the Institute of Experimental and Theoretical Physics in Sarov, at the Institute of Chemical Physics, Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, etc.
Prior to join LEAD CIS team Maria was a senior researcher at the All-Russian Institute for Scientific and Technical information (Russian Academy of Sciences)