Margarita Marinova

Margarita Marinova was born in Bulgaria and can speak five languages: English, Bulgarian, Russian, German and French. When she was 10, she moved to Vienna for one year, before moving to Toronto. Her mother and father were computer engineers. She was the founder and chair of the Toronto Chapter of the international Mars Society whilst at high school. She entered and won the NASA Space Settlement Design Content in 1997, 1998 and 1999. By the age of 18, she had co-authored five science papers. She was determined to one day visit Mars, although she did not always receive encouragement from her adult advisors: "In high school, my guidance counsellor gave me a big speech about how I would never get into an American university".