Follow Petros Selinis, an MSc student, during an educational trip to Germany (June 2016)
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Petros Selinis, MSc Student of MNTLab@Duth had the opportunity of an Informational/Educational Trip to Germany ( 6- 9 June, 2016) as a prize given to the young scientists that participated in the -award winning- SHELION Project. It is reminded that the SHELION Project was amongst the three projects that received honor during the Greek‐German Days on Research, Innovation & Young Scientists. Come and read below his experience of this educational trip:
“During the informational trip I had the chance to visit some of the most modern, well-equipped and technologically advanced research centers in Germany. After arriving in Berlin, there was a reception and welcome by the Parliamentary State Secretary Thomas Rachel at BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), including a very informative presentation on “Research for the transformation of the energy system”.
Figure1.Reception and welcome at BMBF
Next day, we visited Helmholtz Center Berlin, (helmholtz‐berlin.de) where we had a tour around BESSY II, a source of synchrotron light. Synchrotron light is produced whenever electrons are accelerated to near the speed of light and forced to travel in a circle. The emitted electromagnetic waves cover the whole spectrum from the terahertz range to visible light all the way to hard X-rays. After that, there was a guided tour through the Science and Technology Park Adlershof (adlershof.de),
Figure 2.Helmholtz Center Berlin in the area of Science and Technology Park Adlershof.
which is one of the most successful high-technology locations in Germany, including Humboldt University, Research centers and companies working on biotechnology, IT, Microsystems technology, photonics, renewable energy and many more.
Figure 3. Karlsruhe institute of technology, campus north.
During the following day, we visited Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (kit.edu/english/index.php), campus north. There, we had the chance to visit several laboratories that conduct research on topics such as material science and lithium-ion batteries technology and have interesting conversations with other researchers that work there.
Figure 4. Jülich Research Center.
Finally, the last day of our visit was spent in Jülich Research Center (fz-juelich.de/portal/EN/Home/home_node.html). Jülich Research Center is one of Europe’s large research centers with more than 5500 employees, that conducts research on two main topics: “Energy and Environment”, developing new approaches in the fields of renewable energy, storage technologies, energy efficiency and for the overall system of energy-climate-environment, and “Information and the Brain”, trying to understand the complex processes in the brain, in order to find more effective diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, and at the same time, researching information processing paths in humans in order to provide new approaches in information technology.
Figure 5. Group photo during last day of the trip in Bohn (Petros Selinis is at the center of the team).
In a personal level, this informational trip in Germany was a great experience. I was offered the opportunity to visit many research centers and laboratories, while all the presentations and tours were up-to-date and insightful, providing information about their achievements and future research plans. I also had the chance to meet and talk with many young people that work on research, such as PhD students and post-doc researchers, either from the other groups that I had this trip with, or from the research groups that we visited.”