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By summer student Eduardo Montoya > Before coming to HZB, while having a coffee with one of my dearest friends who studied biomedical engineering, we got into jokingly into an argument of who was the most “engineer” out of the two of us. The big question was if she, having gone through a lot of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering programming and construction lectures, was the ultimate engineer. Or me, having studied materials sciences and engineering with my countless hours of solid states physics, thermodynamics and surface chemistry, was the ultimate engineer. I clearly lost this debate, and we came to the simple conclusion, that evenRead More →

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By summer student Jinlin Li> Life is filled with many firsts, which are worth recording and celebrating. As Armstrong famously said when he landed on the moon, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Similarly, Ronaldo’s favorite song “Stay” reflects the sentiment of leaving behind one’s old life: “It is not much of a life you are living…” This echoes the moment young Ronaldo left his hometown of Madeira to join Sporting CP and start his professional football career. In the Neapolitan Novels, Lenu takes a significant step by leaving her small town of Naples to move to the big cityRead More →

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By summerstudent Aman Kumar > Berlin, Germany, as per my understanding is the most important city from the 20th century and I think many of you will agree with me and if you don’t—I will explain my “controversial?” claim in a bit. But first about me. I am Aman. A master’s student. From India. Currently on the way to becoming a Physicist (Most probably!! Let’s keep our fingers crossed and pray for me. I don’t believe in God but if you do, then I think it should work). So, coming back to my claim. From the point of physics, Quantum Revolution happened here. On which ourRead More →

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By summerstudent Ralph Carlo Evidente > As the sun set over Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, I rushed past the iconic Weltzeituhr, drawn towards home by the last light reflecting off the Fernsehturm. That evening, as I settled in to watch the latest episode of House of the Dragon, the parallels between my own journey and the on-screen drama were unmistakable. In Episode 7, as Vermithor chose Hugh Hammer amid the flames, I saw a reflection of my own life choices— not aligning myself with mythical beasts, but with the field of sustainable energy.Read More →

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By summerstudent Rohn Cephas> After discovering the HZB summer student program in LINKEDIN; I did immediately apply: Since that moment, my eyes were glued to my email to see if my application would bear the result. I was more than happy when I was listed among the International Summer School Students 2024 followed by the VIPERLAB project. In HZB, I am working on a project on perovskite solar cells which I could barely do in my home country Kenya due to the unavailable conditions required for their fabrication: A clean room and an inert environment are nothing to even imagine in the labs I wasRead More →

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By summerstudent Samora Amanda Buthelezi> It took me three weeks to adapt in Berlin and the laboratory at HZB. Many times, I walked alone. I usually kept quiet and felt lonely while I was with others. I felt very bad thinking that other people would think that I was avoiding them on purpose. I realized that for me to adapt, I must be open-minded, expect some differences in a new place, try new things like eating new food, accept new ideas, and hang around with other local people. I am a person who is calm, shy, and gentle. I overcame shyness by communicating more withRead More →

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By summerstudent Alice Rodgers> The annual global carbon dioxide emissions have increased by over three times since the 1960s, and in 2023 they were an estimated 36.8 billion tonnes.1 This is primarily due to the use of fossil fuels as an energy source and therefore in recent years it has become important to find renewable sources of energy. Since the 1990s lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have become one of the most important ways of storing energy and have applications in everything from mobile phones to cars. However, lithium is a limited resource making the supply chain of LIBs at risk. Furthermore, there are ethical and environmentalRead More →

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By summerstudent Lorenzo Ubilla> Bessy II is a giant ring where dancing electrons create x ray light used by over 40 beam lines. As Newton once said, it stands on giant’s shoulders (quite literally since its located between Albert Einstein Str. And Max Planck Str.) and hundreds of scientists go there everyday to accomplish their goals or pale in frustration.Read More →

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By summerstudent Julen Lasarte> An English proverb says: “A calm sea doesn’t make good sailors”. This is one of the reasons that made me come to Berlin. Obviously, it’s not that Berlin was for me “a bad sea”; I am passionate about history, coming to Berlin was a real luxury and luck for me. On top of that I had to come to work in what I like the most. But coming here made me get out of my comfort zone. I confess that the days before coming to Berlin were not easy, I’m a person who thinks a lot about his worries: “Will IRead More →

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By summerstudent Heloise da Silva> One month ago, I had never been on a plane or even visited an airport before, let alone traveled to another country. My life was familiar: I have been working on a project for almost three years in Brazil, knew my way back home, knew which train to take, and how to behave properly. I could even handle groceries by myself, which in Berlin, feels like running a marathon because you have to be quick — the line moves fast!Read More →