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By summerstudent Fernando Alonso Cordova Mariño > In recent years, science in my country, Peru, has begun to gain relevance. More and more young people are drawn to scientific careers, motivated by curiosity and a passion for continuing to learn. However, those of us who decide to take this path know it’s not easy. Limited infrastructure, funding, and recognition have been constant obstacles to growth. I remember a phrase a professor told us in the first years of university: “We have to learn to do science with sticks, ropes, and stones.” He wasn’t just referring to the lack of resources, but also to the creativityRead More →

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By summerstudent Alex Giron > After studying Physics for many years, I feel tired. I hope I’m not the only one, but it’s really exhausting. Sometimes it’s just solving exams but not always understanding the importance of what I am learning, or seeing it far removed from real life. That was how I felt before coming here. I realized that I was lacking motivation. I really missed the feeling of my early days as a physics student, when I fell in love whit it. But, luckily, I always try to be optimistic, so I decided to find experiences that could make me feel motivated again.Read More →

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By summerstudent Beatriz Silveira Augusto > January 14th. That’s when I got the news: I was going to Berlin! Could there be a better way to start the year? I started planning everything in advance, since I would have about six months to prepare, in Brazil, the foundation for my experiments at the HZB. I thought I would be calm, ready, and organised when the time arrived. In theory, it was the perfect plan. In practice… not so much. Nothing worked at first I had to establish a protocol to express, purify, and crystallise a protein in order to run a fragment screening at HZB,Read More →

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By summerstudent Lluïsa Nieddu Vicent > 8:10 a.m. I arrive at Zehlendorf train station and suddenly hear the train approaching. I am almost on the stairs when a question pops into my mind: Should I run to catch this train or wait for the next one? I start running and when I reach the platform, I hear the sound of the doors closing. Aargh, missed it! But wait, the train was heading toward Oranienburg, and I needed to go to Wannsee… So in the end, I was lucky. That moment, full of uncertainty and instinct, reflected  the rhythm of my summer in Berlin. A rhythmRead More →

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By summerstudent Liam Collin > If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. A motto instilled into me by my grandpa. Resilience is the key to success he said, as we sat by the fire and looked up to the stars at the family home in Solihull. A man small in stature with the biggest heart, he came from humble beginnings: growing up in poverty by the docks in Glasgow, he longed for a better life for himself and his family. During the day, he would work to provide for his mother and younger siblings. As the day turned to night, heRead More →

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By summerstudent Mariella Herrera > I remember that when I was little, it was a tradition to spend Christmas at my grandparents’ house. The Christmas tree was decorated with thousands of ornaments and hundreds of colored lights… or at least that’s what it seemed like when I was six. Presents were overflowing under the tree, and I was sure at least three of them were for me. As dinner time approached, my grandparents’ house filled with family, the aroma of the juicy turkey my grandmother had spent all day cooking, the tamales we all made (like any good Mexican family), and the buñuelos that wereRead More →

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Some students overcame big obstacles to join the International Summer Students Programme at HZB: Traveling 12 hours by bus across the Andes to obtain a visa in Bogotá, borrowing money from here and there to pay the fees for formalities, and maintaining hope when the visa was delayed. One student visited the embassy every day for two weeks, leaving a yellow envelope with a polite reminder each time. And even with a visa, problems could arise last minute. Another student was already at the airport when he was denied boarding because he did not have a return ticket yet. He called our HZB colleagues whoRead More →

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“The moment I stepped out of the lab, the sky above Berlin transformed. A sudden downpour ceased as swiftly as it had begun, leaving in its wake a vivid rainbow arching across the Berliner Himmel. It was my first unforgettable brush with the city’s “unberechenbar” weather—a local term for the unpredictable that I soon learned to embrace.” Having called two continents my home, I was now ready to immerse myself in the rhythm of a third. As summer unfolded, Berlin welcomed me—an eager research intern from distant shores, eager to dive into both the city’s vibrant culture and cutting-edge science.Read More →

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By summer student, Abdelrahman Mohamed Ishmael > My journey to Berlin started two years before joining HZB when I planned to get an international internship during my undergraduate life and worked strictly to make my dreams true. The first time I wandered Berlin streets, I was fascinated with its green natural sceneries and vibrant places inside. I felt no culture shock: What I have heard from travelers about the human and cultural diversity in Berlin has helped me cope more quickly as if I lived there before. Searching for stability I needed no time to get involved with the lab mates in the Young InvestigatorRead More →

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By summer student Sofia Muñoz Bonilla > Dear summerstudents, My name is Sofia Muñoz Bonilla, I’m a Colombian student of environmental engineering. Thanks to the HZB summer program for foreign students, I have had a wonderful experience in Berlin. But I’m not going to talk about how amazing Berlin is, because you will find out for yourselves. However, with the eyes of an environmental engineer, I see important avenues with trees, the parks with their own vibes thanks to the many different musicians, green areas, and moss that grows in the middle of the sidewalks. The first days, I couldn’t believe how far my feetRead More →