In order to study at Moscow University, Lev Berg chose to convert to Lutheranism and became a noted geographer and ichthyologist.

With the dissertation "Differences between wild and laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster: a hypothesis of genetic correlations," she earned a Candidate of Sciences degree from Leningrad State University.

Berg continued botanical experiments to support her doctoral dissertation and published work relating to her father's expeditions.

The comparatively liberal Khrushchev regime and remote Novosibirsk Akademgorodok afforded her the opportunity to host gatherings of dissenter artists and writers.

[10] Along with several dozen other researchers working within the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Berg signed a letter protesting the closed trials of dissidents.

She asserted that he was interested in pure research, politically opposed to the Third Reich, reasonably concerned for his safety in Stalin's Soviet Union, and unfairly persecuted following World War II.