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Issue 1, June 1999
Science Abroad: A Personal Account
Christian Petersen
Last summer I worked at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
in Mainz, Germany, through a summer research program with CPIMA
(Center for Polymer Interfaces and Macromolecular Assemblies), a
joint endeavor of Stanford, IBM, and UC-Davis. The Max Planck Institutes
are among the most productive of research centers in the country
and for this reason are considered by German academians to be very
prestigious. They receive substantial funding from the German government,
so in this respect they are similar to U.S. Department Of Energy
(D.O.E.) labs. However, there are about 60 MPIs all over Germany
and each has a particular focus of scientific study. As well as
giving me a great opportunity to do challenging research, I had
the chance to travel all over Europe during my time there, make
friends from all over the world, and become acquainted with another
culture.
The City of Mainz
Mainz itself was an interesting city, situated on the gorgeous Rhein
river about 40 km west of Frankfurt. It was big enough to have several
large festivals throughout the summer, yet quaintly built around
an old town square overlooked by a massive cathedral. The city's
location was also advantageous. I traveled almost every weekend
and then for two weeks at the end of the summer, all over Germany
and to the neighboring countries. It was great to have the chance
to go to Paris, London, Cologne, Nuremberg, Rome and Florence and
do scientific research at the same time.
German Culture
The institute set me up with an apartment in one of the suburbs.
I had never lived completely on my own before, so learning to cook
for myself all the time, paying all of my bills, etc., was pretty
challenging, especially since I had to do so auf Deutsch. On the
other hand, that experience helped me to grow in ways that I probably
would not have otherwise. Muddling through the stereotypically thick
German bureaucracy was also intimidating, but my advisor was very
understanding and helped me every step of the way. I also found
that meeting Germans in an everyday setting was extremely difficult.
However, my group at the institute was closely knit. We always ate
lunch together, had several parties throughout the summer, and went
to bars and clubs together. I play jazz piano as well, and as luck
would have it, there was a Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
Jazz Band and they needed a pianist, so that was another good way
to meet people. Also, since this particular Max Planck Institute
has a very international focus, I ended up making many friends not
only from all over Germany, but also from Holland, Japan, France,
Argentina, China, Russia, England, Algeria, and Italy.
The
Language Barrier
The majority
of the scientists at Max Planck Institute, my advisor included, spoke
English exquisitely well, although they were often modest about their
abilities. I got the feeling that getting far in the world of German
science involves having at least a reading knowledge of English because
of the number of important journals published in English. Most of
the Americans there could get by with very little knowledge of German.
I had taken several years of German in high school and college before
going, but never encountered the language on an everyday basis, spoken
by actual Germans with their own dialects. In other words, college
literature classes prepared me to discuss Kant and Kafka, but when
it came to ordering "wurst," I found myself tripping up.
On the other hand, living in Germany gave me the chance to immerse
myself in the language and become reasonably fluent in colloquial
German.
So What's the Difference?
Before
going into the differences I noticed between German and American scientific
research, I should explain which experiences have shaped my idea of
research in the U.S. Previous to my working in Germany, I spent a
summer at Ameslab, a Department of Energy lab associated with Iowa
State University, and had done some work with a professor at Grinnell
College.
I found that the biggest differences were related
to the organization of the institution and to the focus of the research.
Since "The Scientific Method" is fairly universal in its
spirit, there was little difference in the techniques or the scientific
reasoning that were used. The organization of the labs in Germany,
however, seemed to be more hierarchical than in the U.S. My advisor
probably would have been called an "assistant professor"
in the States, but instead was simply called a "Project leader,"
a clear reference to the importance of research at the institution,
even though he taught some classes and had about eight graduate
students and post-docs underneath him. His immediate superior held
the title of Professor, but taught no classes, advised no graduate
students or post-docs, and did no research. He directed the work
of five researchers below him, like my advisor, so that there were
about 70 people in my research "group"! This was certainly
much different from my experience of working at a small school with
only one other person, and even different from doing research at
Ameslab, where my immediate advisor was a full professor and his
group consisted of 10 graduate students and 5 postdocs altogether.
The focus of the research itself at this particular MPI seemed to
be much more practically oriented than that in the U.S. My own project
was funded by industry partners, and a very large portion of Max
Planck Institute funds comes from corporate sponsorship of research.
As for the program itself, my feeling is that most
summer research programs in the U.S. have enough students to build
some kind of community, albeit a small one, in which there are weekly
meetings and perhaps a poster session at the end. I was the only
person with the CPIMA summer program to do research at Max Planck
Institute, so I sometimes felt a little out of place. I made many
friends, like I said earlier, but I think it may have been easier
to do so if I had begun a summer program at the same time as several
other people in the same situation.
The Verdict
I strongly recommend
this program or any other study abroad or research abroad program
to any science student. Aside from the individual and personal value
of learning how to survive in another country with a foreign culture
and attitude, the scientific value of the exchange of information
across borders is immense. There is an increasingly international
focus to scientific research, and experiences such as these can
help to make life-long connections otherwise impossible to achieve.
Journal
of Young Investigators. 1999. Volume Two.
Copyright © 2001 by Christian Petersen and JYI. All rights reserved.
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