ERIP Students’ blog
A summer well spent
Despite all the situations going on with the pandemic, the past three months definitely have been the highlight of my year full with enjoyable experiences and inspirational people. My internship project was about optimising ligands for palladium-catalysed enantioselective reactions. Therefore, it mainly consisted of benchwork. The usual routine was to work up the reaction in (…)
EPFL and Switzerland – A place to work and live
I am Jakub Lála, studying at Imperial College London, but originally from Prague, Czech Republic. I worked in the Computational Sciences and Modelling Lab with Professor Michele Ceriotti. Below, I am giving you some of the most influential points I learned this summer, hoping to persuade you that EPFL is a great place to spend (…)
Ode to a Swiss summer
When I found out that I had the opportunity to come perform research at EPFL this summer, it seemed like a miracle. After so long without traveling, the hopes and expectations I had for my summer were outrageously high. Somehow, it turned it out even better than I could have imagined. I spent 3 months (…)
Research internship – work and life balance
The research internship at EPFL marked one of my top experience during my college life. I was able to devote myself into rigorous academic research while enjoying things in Switzerland. I was most impressed with Swiss style work and life balance. The research project I worked on is in operation research lead by Professor Weber, (…)
What would you get if you mix probability and fondue?
Travelling during summer is something I always enjoyed, discovering new and exciting places. However, I never expected to fall in love with a country so quickly as I did with Switzerland. These three months I spend here interning were both busy and energising, the perfect mix of work and leisure. During my stay in Lausanne, (…)
Bikes & hikes
It’s 2:00 AM on a hot summer Monday, and I’m still editing bits and pieces of a 70+ slides Powerpoint presentation. I need to present my results from the past 6 weeks of work to a team of 15 biologists including the lab’s head, each of them keen on scrutinizing the data I’ll be presenting. (…)
A summer among mountains
I have been once to Switzerland before this summer, but I have just realised now how amazing it is. Lausanne became one of my favourite cities from the very first days spent here. I have been working in the Laboratory for Quantum Gases, being supervised by Professor Jean-Philippe Brantut and Kevin Roux. The current goal (…)
Improving solar cells for a brighter future
“If you want to change the world, even if you can’t, at least you die trying.” – Such were the words emblazoned above the door of my office at LIMNO (Laboratory for Molecular Engineering of Optoelectronic Nanomaterials – led by Prof. Kevin Sivula), which was the lab I spent my 3 months of summer at. (…)
Work hard, hike harder
Three months have never flown by so quickly. From the first day I arrived, I began my busy summer of exploration, work, and adjustment to life in Switzerland, supported all along the way by my fellow interns and boxed ice coffee from Migros. Let’s start with my lab. I interned this summer in the Medical (…)
A wonderful summer
My first impression of Switzerland came from reading one of Einstein’s biography books. The greatest physicist ever lived, went to school in Zürich and worked at the Bern Patent Office, and developed his theory of relativity. Since then, the impression that Switzerland is a land of science was imprinted on my mind. So as an (…)