After two years of interruption due to the Corona pandemic, HZB finally hosted summer students again this summer. They came from Pakistan, Colombia, Spain, USA, and Korea. A look behind the scenes of the International Summer Student Programme – ISSP.Read More →
by DAAD-summerstudent Laura Berneaga What happens when you stop planning and start letting life flow by itself instead? Many would assume everything would crumble or you would somehow fall behind, but for me the complete opposite was true. This path led me to Germany, something I had been dreaming of doing since the last time I stepped foot in this country. Five years ago, I did a research exchange in Stuttgart and ever since then, all my plans revolved around finding a way to come back here. I enrolled in German language courses, I looked for internship opportunities in the area, I was inquiring aboutRead More →
by summerstudent Oscar Moreno As a master’s student in chemistry, experiments are the basis of my research. The excitement of running an experiment for the first time and the challenge of trying to explain the results keeps me motivated. Nonetheless, in order to pursue things further, my investigation forced me to work during weekends and many times I found myself preparing reports in my room at midnight. I was not aware my acacemic life had come out of the laboratory and was encroaching on other aspects of my life until one of my advisors stopped me. After seeing me working on Saturdays without pausing, heRead More →
by summerstudent Geunwoo Kim Before coming to Berlin, I had never spoken English. In South-Korea, it is not easy to have a chance to speak English in general except for special cases. I was also a student who had never had a chance to speak English. When I applied for the HZB Summer Student Program in February 2022, I was worried about ‘Can I communicate well?’ and ‘Can I do my research well?’ When I received an email from HZB that I was selected for the summer student program, I was happy and worried. The problem was that I had never spoken English. After finishingRead More →
by summerstudent Jorge Torre Ordás If you are reading this, there is around a 40 % chance that you have lived most of your life in a rural area. In my case, this is true, and you must know that, for that reason, I had never traveled neither by plane, train, or tram until the day I arrived in Berlin, in which I did it all at once. Berlin has an astonishing public transport infrastructure, which could not amaze me more when I came to my first day of the HZB Summer Student Programme (2022). The whole transport network is the result of years ofRead More →
by summerstudent Attia Arooj No great things come easily in your life, so as this summer program at HZB. From visa problems as a non european student to accommodation in a crowded city like Berlin, I faced it all. But the real challenge started when I got to see my work place. It was a “Physics” Lab or more technically called Magnetic Resonance Lab equipped with NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) and EPR (Electron Paramagnetic Resonance) spectrometers. Being a chemist, working in a physics lab was totally new to me. Since college I had always a fear towards this subject which made me run away fromRead More →
by summerstudent Nora Jung Sitting in my organic chemistry class two semesters ago, I heard the whispers of a word repeated often amongst my classmates. I was only in my second year of my undergrad and the pressure of finding a research position was a constant reminder in the back of my head. In January of 2022, I applied for the summer research position at HZB and it felt like a step in the right direction, but I was still unsure about what lay ahead. What does it mean to do research? Am I qualified enough? Will I know the right answers?Read More →
During my studentship there is one thing I have discovered above all: patience. Patience is the mother of science, as the saying goes. And I have learned it the hard way. My project is a complex one; like most science projects. I’m trying to synthesize and characterize a new material to act as an absorber of light in solar cells. It is called: copper-barium diselenide. More specifically I want this material to be a top-cell absorber in tandem cells. In fact, this synthesis is not easy: little is known about the compound, and barium is very reactive with oxygen, so one must be very carefulRead More →
When one enters the Lab 120 in the Silicon Photovoltaics institute, the first view of it is this: It was kind of a shock to see all these “hands” floating in the air. They reminded me of an astronaut’s space suit. A very interesting tool, which I was very excited to use. One mission: getting the hands into the glove box A glove box is a device permitting you to do experiments in a different atmosphere as outside. Itis very useful if you work with toxic chemicals like here in the Silicon Photovoltaics Institute. As you handle everything with gloves and it is closed soRead More →
Our Summer Student Daniel talks about his explorations in Berlin. He writes a guide for students with lots of tipps to discover Germany’s capital.Read More →