She first became fascinated by geomicrobial interactions as a third year student at the University of Mining and Geology, in Bulgaria, where she studied geochemistry and microbiology as separate subjects. This gave her the idea to pursue a research career at the interface between geochemistry and microbiology – or geomicrobiology. Dr Simeonova then went on to receive her PhD from Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France, for a project entitled ‘Arsenic Oxidation of Cenibacterium arsenoxidans: Potential application in bioremediation of arsenic contaminated water’. This was followed by a few years of postdoctoral research at the University of Konstanz in Constance, Germany, where she then went on to become the principal investigator on several geomicrobiology projects.