Interview Reinder Kersten Internship in Germany

by Maarten Jager

Can you tell us something about yourself?

Hi I am Reinder Kersten, 23 years old and currently doing my internship in Germany. I am a second year master student of the Chemical Process Engineering track, and you may know me for my role as Commissioner of Educational Affairs in the 55th board of Alembic.

Why did you want to do your internship abroad?

I am not sure if I want to stay in the Netherlands after graduation, and I figured doing an internship abroad is an easy, early step to take in order to know if it would be something I would enjoy. Next to broadening my horizons and learning about a different culture, I also wanted to experience a more international setting. In Enschede I mostly socialized with my fellow Dutch students, I lived in an allDutch student house and even though the master programme is in English, due to Corona I had not much contact with international students as all education was done online. And of course, if I would end up disliking living abroad, it is only for six months.

Where and at what company are you working?

I am doing my internship at the department of Materials Synthesis and Processing at the Forschungszentrum Jülich, near the city of Aachen.

Why did you decide to do your internship there?

I wanted to do my internship abroad, but due to Corona I figured it might be best to do it near home, so I ended up in Germany. During my internship I wanted to broaden my horizons, and learn about different cultures and I also wanted to learn a new language. Due to the combination of these things, Germany seemed to be the best option. Via the connections of the research group of Prof. Arian Nijmeijer I finally ended up in Jülich.

During my internship I wanted to broaden my horizons

Can you tell us something about the company?

The research center itself is huge, with many different research departments. Ranging from development in quantum computing to botanical research and of course chemistry. Everything is located on a campus site in Jülich, which is larger than the University of Twente campus. The closest university is in Aachen, and many PhD students here are connected to that university.

How is Jülich?

It’s a typical small German town, about forty minutes driving from the Dutch border. You can immediately notice it’s very German. Everyone only speaks German here, so that does feel quite foreign.

Can you tell us about your internship assignment?

As I’m studying process engineering, and the Forschungszentrum mainly focuses on materials research, the initial plan was for me to merge both worlds. I was about to design and validate a computer model on the drying liquid of the tape casting fabrication process of a semipermeable membrane for alkene synthesis. With that idea I set off for Germany, but very soon I found out that it was difficult to model as thick membranes break during drying. So, the research center wanted to find out exactly why the material breaks and they wanted a computer model wherein they could enter parameter values to predict fracture of the material upon a set thickness. I began with a literature study to learn more about my material and the tape casting procedure, but quickly realized designing a model and studying all the parameters would be impossible to do during an internship of six months. Hence, my assignment shifted towards doing more experimental research, studying the influence of different slurry solutions on the fracture chance of the casted tape. So, I’m basically conducting material science experiments in the lab all day. This is actually also nice, as you learn something about the other chemical engineering track and you’re not sitting behind a laptop all day.

What are your daily duties?

As all of my experiments take quite a bit of time, I often only perform one experiment per day. The experiments take about 24 hours to be completed, so after initiation I spend the rest of the day cleaning and writing. In the lab I mostly conduct solid state reactions between two powder materials, particle sintering or tape casting my material. For characterization of the slurries I use rheology experiments to determine its viscosity.

How do the Corona measurements affect your internship?

A lot of activities have been canceled. For instance seminars and the planned visit to the University of Twente. Initially it was planned that my supervisor and I would present my research in Twente for the master course Advanced Ceramics, but due to Corona this was done online. Furthermore, we are expected to work from home if you do not need the lab, and there’s not much fun socializing activities going on.

Where are you living?

I live in the underground basement of a students’ home. I often spend my evenings in my room and with my roommates as well. I got here via the research center who are in contact with the landlord. It’s quite near the Forschungszentrum - only about ten minutes by bike.

How’s your German coming along?

At highschool I graduated with German as one of my courses, so after five years of lessons I could already understand it pretty well. However, we did not really practice everyday use. Since most of the meetings with the staff here are in German, I have learned to understand it much better already, but speaking is still quite hard, as I always reply in English.

When are you done?

I will be busy until the end of March. I already started in October, so I chose for an internship of six months. I think for shorter internships it is difficult to do real research, as it took me some time to learn everything and settle in. Also, for the going abroad experience, I figured a longer internship might be more interesting.

With this newly gained experience, do you already know if you’ll be staying in the Netherlands after graduation? Well… although it is true that I am abroad, due to the current measures it does not really feel like another country. Just like in the Netherlands, there’s not much going on here and when I’m not at the lab, I’m working from home. My house here is not the best working environment, so I often go back to my parents on Thursdays and spend the weekends there as everything’s closed down here.

Have you already found a graduation assignment?

Not yet, as I plan on just doing it in Enschede. Maybe I’ll start at the research group of Inorganic Membranes or Soft matter, Fluidics and Interfaces, but I have not really