Maria Chamberlain is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. She was born in Kraków, Poland, and emigrated with her parents in 1958 at the age of eleven. The family settled in Edinburgh, where she still lives. Maria pursued an academic career as a biologist researching plant and fungal biology and teaching undergraduates at the University of Edinburgh. Now in her retirement, she maintains contact with students in her roles as an Honorary Lecturer of the University of Edinburgh and Programme Secretary of the Botanical Society of Scotland.