T-Licht Association magazine of T.S.V. ‘Jan Pieter Minckelers’
OCTOBER 2018 VOLUME 23 EDITION 01
Study Tour 2018:
A discovery in oriental chemistry The introduction week New freshmen incoming!
Writing a master thesis: A new kind of bio-industry
Dear reader, The first quartile is already progressing as you read this T-Licht. As a new board member and new editor in chief I would like to shortly introduce myself. My name is Raoul Hendrix and this year I’m the coordinator of internal affairs. My hobbies are mainly playing tennis and playing tuba. Like a real student, I like to drink a beer with my friends. Of course preferably in our own F.O.R.T., the bar of Japie. Traditionally the coordinator of internal affairs becomes editor in chief for the T-Licht. That means that this edition will be my first edition.
15 Study Tour 2018 Study Tour: 28 Japies and 2 scientific supervisors on a discovery in oriental chemistry.
Some of you might already know me as the treasurer of the study tour committee. As the editor in chief I hope to combine the logic of being a treasurer with the creativity that a coordinator of internal affairs should have. I hope I can bring nice editions of T-Licht to you this year and that all of you will enjoy reading these editions. I hope you enjoy the many articles in this new T-Licht! Raoul Hendrix
09 Introduction week Welcome the new freshmen: The first step of the new freshmen into the world of Japie.
T-Licht October 2018 04
By the chairman: Choices designing your life
05 Education: A fresh start
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Culture shock: Tea, beer and sunny weather
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Carte blanche: The bio-industry called ‘Master Thesis
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Science news: Mother nature knows best
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Carte blanche: iGem student competition
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PhD article: Deep eutectic solvents
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Introduction week: Japie introduction week 2018
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Beer of the quartile: World class hygge in a bottle
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Chemistry in real life: Autumn behind the scenes
26 Internship: DSM nutritional products
14 Spraakwater: The introspection of a Korean mind 15
Study Tour 2018: A discovery in oriental chemistry
18 Puzzle: Cryptic chemistry
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Hoe heurt het eigenlijk?: To wear or not to wear
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Carte blanche: Who am I? A peak into being bicultural
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Interview with: Timothy Noël
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Het Y van de huismeester: Nederlands? Je kunt er niets meer mee
Interview with: Timothy Noël Volume 23, edition 1, Circulation: 550 Editor in chief: Raoul Hendrix Editorial board: Bart van den Bersselaar, Mariska Brüls, Alex van de Greef, Janne van Gisbergen, Limi Kalapurackal, Marle Vleugels, Koen Vlot, Woutje ter Weel, Thomas Werkhorst, Marc Willemsen. Printer: Gildeprint Drukkerijen info@gildeprint.nl
The T-Licht is the association magazine of T.S.V. ‘Jan Pieter Minckelers’, study association of the department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry of the Eindhoven University of Technology. Contact: T.S.V. ‘Jan Pieter Minckelers’ Attn. Het T-Licht Helix STW 0.25 Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven Tel: 040-2473756 tlicht.st@tue.nl | www.tsvjapie.nl
32 The editorial board always reserves the right to edit or decline the provided copy.
Choices Designing your life By the chairman
The problem of stress among young people is in the news more and more often recently. We, as students, are worried about our examinations, finding a room and our dept. For me, however, the most stress in the past three years as student was about something else: making choices about my life. And I know I am not the only one. I think it is difficult and scary to decide what you want to do in the future and who you would like to be. I felt like I had to evaluate every option in order not to miss something that could be júst right for me. At the same time, I did not really dare to choose since this meant I excluded the other options.
and I thought that I might want to include this more in my life, but in the LuBoCie I found out this is not really my talent. Furthermore, there are so many students within our association who are already ahead of you in planning their life and each of them is more than willing to explain the choices they made and the direction they are going into. Many of them have inspired me to prototype even more possible lives.
After struggling for a while, my mom got me a book with the vague title ‘designing your life’ and I did not read it until the carnival break of last year. By that time I already found out myself that designing your life is not easy: it really is a process. And in this process, it might be interesting to take an example from the Industrial Design students on campus (just for once I promise): start building prototypes. Try out your different options in a small scale, craft your life as a prototype. Personally, I used my bachelor project as a prototype to help me decide which master I would like to do after my board year and I think this year I will be able to see if taking responsibilities as a chairman and organizing activities is something that suits me. I never thought of myself as a traveler, but I prototyped this on our study tour to Asia. When I was younger I liked to be creative
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Use your own creativity, our community and all the opportunities you have as a student to just try out some new things and learn about yourself and the life you want to lead. Hopefully the prototypes help you getting rid of stress for choices and the happiness will follow!
WRITTEN BY:
“Try out your different options in a small scale, craft your life as a prototype.”
Rosa Geveling Rosa, as the new chairman of Japie, wanted to give an insight in how she made decisions in her life.
A fresh start Education
After the introduction week, in which I hope you all had an amazing time (especially all our new freshmen), and one final week of relaxation afterwards, it was finally there: the start of a new academic year! For our association this means, of course, a change of boards. With a new board inevitably comes a new coordinator of educational affairs, which is what I, Rick Arts, will be this academic year! This year we have welcomed well over one hundred new students at our beloved department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, including a fair number of international students. I hope that all of you got used to studying at our university by now and that you will be successful in your studies! At the time you are reading this, lectures have of course already started and for some of you the first (intermediate) tests have already taken place: education is up and running once again. Education is of course one of the three main pillars of our association, and since we have some extra manpower within the 61st board, I am not the only one that will keep an eye on education this year. Our coordinator of internal affairs, Raoul Hendrix, will stand by my side to try to improve education for you as well. Whereas I will focus more on the bachelor college, Raoul will keep track of the graduate school. Together, we will be this year’s educational squad! With some extra educational manpower, the attention can of course be divided
over more aspects of education. This means that we will try, for example, to join university wide educational working groups to contribute to the improvement of education for all students, and so eventually also for you, as a Chemical Engineering and Chemistry student! Of course, you as a student can also help us to improve education, especially by attending the cohort counseling sessions (“jaaroverleggen’’). During these meetings you can supply us with your
feedback regarding your courses, teachers or study material. We will then communicate this to the teacher. When you have feedback but don’t want to wait for the cohort counseling you are more than welcome to tell us! To wrap up, I wish you all good luck with your studies and I hope to see you at the next cohort counseling session!
WRITTEN BY:
Rick Arts
“Education is of course one of the three main pillars of our association.”
Rick introduces himself as coordinator of educational affairs and wants to wish everyone good luck with their studies.
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Mother nature knows best Science news
Mimicking nature, it is something that has been done since a very long time. One prime example would be Leonardo Davinci (1452–1519) whom studied the flight and anatomy of birds and tried to build numerous flying machines. Since then many people have looked at nature for answers to scientific questions, or simply just learn from the complex systems that are embedded in everything around us. This field of science is called biomimetics or biomimicry. One thing that is being tried to recreate is coloring. To be more specific, people have been looking into the way a certain structure translates into the vivid coloring we see in nature. There are some classic examples that often get referenced when introducing this subject. For example the wings of the Morpho butterfly family [1]. These butterflies have very specific nanostructures on their wings that reflect incident light repeatedly leading to interference (the physical phenomenon of two waves that are in phase either amplifying or canceling each other). Through studying these structures and research, science
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has succeeded in replicating these structures and their vivid colors. This was done with metal oxides like Titanium sulfate (TiSO4), zirconium oxide (ZrO2), and aluminium oxide (Al2O3). Recently these structures were even obtained using a laser to remove matter as opposed to synthesizing the structures. Aside from this butterfly there are more animals that use specific structures to create marvelous color schemes. Recently a very unique and new type of coloring was found in specific beetles or rather a “weevil”. This weevil is known as Pachyrrhynchus congestus pavonius or simply the ‘Rainbow weevil’ [2]. It
was already known that beetles have very reflective elytra which are the covers used to protect a beetles wings, however this weevil is so unique because it forms an entire display of different colors from blue to red in circular spots on its shield. To create this colorful array the weevil uses very complex photonic crystals, photonic crystals are crystals that influence a photon its movement in a similar way that an ionic crystal does that of an electron. In the case of weevils the crystals are made up of chitin, a polymer derived from sugar in nature. This polymer is found in a lot of strong materials in nature like shells of lobsters, beaks of octopi and the outer shield of these weevils. Now the use of chitin structures to create hues of color isn’t the unique thing about this weevil, the ‘oil like’ reflections from most beetles is due to the fact that chitin structures of a set size and contents are viewed from different angles. What makes this specific weevil so unique is the fact that these colors don’t change when viewed from another angle. This was never seen before in insects according to Dr. Saranathan who researched these weevils at Yale University [3].
So what makes these chitin structures different and how are all these colors created? Well we’d have to know what kind of chitin structures are actually included in the outer layer of the weevil. When looked at closely with a Scanning Electron Microscope highly ordered polycrystalline structures were observed [2]. This doesn’t say much about the actual crystal structure its properties however, in order to get more information on these properties several techniques were used. For example Small Angle X-ray Scattering, this revealed that the different colored ‘scales’ on the outer shield of the weevil had very specific sized crystalline domains that differed for each color, big resulting in red and small in blue. Using photonic bandgap modeling it was discovered that the filling factor of chitin also differed for each color, red being almost optimally filled with very little spaces left within the structure and blue approaching a filling of only about 30%. When these to effects were then charted it resulted in another figure [2]. This tuning in the size of the crystalline domains and the filling of a single ‘scale’ thus results in a very unique phenomenon in nature since very vivid consistent and tunable colors are made. Like you might imagine the potential of this coloring mechanism is huge, since every operation that revolves around color production might benefit from it.
The technique might even result in displays that stay consistent in color from any angle and can portray true images. However currently the technology to actually recreate this little wonder of nature is not yet available. This is mainly due to the fact that the crystal structure described above has a single diamond network morphology, which has thus far not yet been recreated within a lab. So the challenge for Dr. Saranathan and his colleagues is now to research and recreate the synthesis process of the weevil its colorful scales.
WRITTEN BY:
Koen Vlot
[1] https://en.butterflycorner.net/ Morpho-aega.458.0.html; 2018-0917 [2] Bodo D. Wilts, Vinodkumar Saranathan. A Literal Elytral Rainbow: Tunable Structural Colors Using Single Diamond Biophotonic Crystals in Pachyrrhynchus congestus Weevils. Small, 2018; 1802328 DOI: 10.1002/smll.201802328 [3] Yale-NUS College. (2018, September 11). New color-generation mechanism discovered in ‘rainbow’ weevil: Similar structures could one day be used for brighter cosmetics and better fiber optics. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 16, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/ releases/2018/09/180911095905.htm
Koen found out about a new challenge within biomimetics and wanted to write about the discovery.
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iGem
student competition Carte blanche Once again, a student team from the TU/e participates in the largest international competition in synthetic biology: iGEM. They’ve been working in the biolab for several months already. In the last week of October, they will finally present their results at the finals in Boston. As a member of the TU/e iGEM-team, I’m happy to tell you. Synthetic biology is a research discipline in which bacteria are adapted, so that they can be used for medical or industrial applications. Just as the SensUs competition from Eindhoven focuses on designing biosensors, the iGEM competition challenges students to come up with new applications for synthetic biology. The competition was first held in 2003, when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) organized it as part of a summer course as competition between only several student teams. Now, fifteen years later, it has developed into an international competition with over 400 teams from over 40 different countries.
Each team designs and conducts their own research. Apart from that, they also need to acquire sponsors, discuss their design with stakeholders and create their own wiki in which their research is explained. Because of the diversity of synthetic biology, the teams divide themselves in subcategories like e.g. ‘Health and medicine’, ‘Diagnostics’ or ‘Energy’. At the end of the competition, all teams travel to Boston for the finals, or as they call it with a fancy name: the Giant Jamboree. What I really like about the competition is that the teams get a lot of freedom in choosing the problem they want to tackle. This results in
that each team has its own unique project, varying from developing a new cancer treatment to converting human excrement into plastic. The Eindhoven iGEM team of this year consists of ten biomedical and two chemical engineering students. As we have an interdisciplinary team, we’ve chosen to integrate both biological and chemical aspects in our project. We’ll create a method to capture and maintain bacteria in a hydrogel . This will make it safer to work outside the lab with genetically modified bacteria. Now that we’ve finished our research, we can’t wait to present our results during our trip to Boston! WRITTEN BY:
Mariska Brüls As a member of the iGEM Eindhoven student team, Mariska wants to tell other chemical engineering students what the iGEM competition is about.
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Japie
Introduction week 2018 Introduction week
Monday morning the 20th August, 120 kids were waiting for their introduction week to start. They just entered the campus packed with a lot of flyers flung at them at the Limbopad and are now looking at three total strangers in blue polos who could drop down on the spot at any moment. They call themselves the IntroCie and had already started this memorable week the day before. The details of that night are currently not available, just like some other nights during the intro week that cannot be fully remembered.
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Day 1: The brainwashing After the traditional wine joke of Peter Janssens and nervously trying to sing the Japie song, it was time to meet your group. The purple shirts with the “I’ve got my ion you” logo, luckily got positive remarks and besides that it made the kids very easy distinguishable from the other associations. Every group also had their unique gadget and got a list of assignments that would result in some hilarious moments. At the official opening, a New Zealander was making weird noises and during the case of ExxonMobil, the kids really put effort into what was about to become the only serious part of the whole week. Dinner was made by the 24 parents and the IntroCie joined mama Boris at his place to BBQ. Together with his and mama Joost’s group, the first drops of alcohol were absorbed by the veins. When the bellies were filled and the kids were not sober anymore, the festival was visited. Dancing around circles filled with bags and guarded by kids, the party was starting. Of course, a large amount of beer could not lack behind, just like the Japie stickers. By the end of the festival quite some kids collected a sticker and headed towards Stratum. Going around four pubs, the kids got to know where to go and where not to go. In the Feestfabriek the Japie song was sang once more, but this time
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with more power from the kids. The brainwashing had begun.
Day 2: T-Feest Time The second day the faculty tour was scheduled. The kids got familiar with Helix and some of the committees of Japie. Next to that, the kids also had to fit lab coats, select fabulous safety goggles and were pushed to buy the F.O.R.T. credit card. In the afternoon the Green Strip Market was used as a propaganda spot for all the other associations. The most iconic part of the market was the very very cute alpaca that could be petted. At dinner the kids and parents jointly enjoyed a barbecue sided by a tasty Brand beer. This was the ideal time for the legendary square meter and indeed, the tradition was prolonged. This made it possible for the IntroCie to enjoy some free beers, which are always welcome, while flipping and serving the food. This all was probably the best way to prepare for the best party of the week, namely the T-Feest. After all hungry mouths were shut the kids made their way for Miller Time to get to know this important phenomenon. A free keg at the beginning and seeing PSV win set the right mood. The candidate board also brought enough stickers to let almost all attendees have one on their dirty intro shirts. At eleven o’clock, all Japie members could enter and meet the new freshmen,
who were being introduced to the Japie culture. Not much later it was time to stand on the bar and sing the Japie song before finding your best friend, a bed.
Day 3: Biking about On Wednesday the city of Eindhoven was explored on the Dutch two-wheeler. Besides getting to know the city, it was also an opportunity to draft innocent kids for your cause. Demos, SSRE and ESC tried heir best to score some extra members (and cash). Meanwhile, the IntroCie was doing groceries for the Thursday breakfast. Walking down Eindhoven with two full shopping carts is not the most favorable situation. In the evening a quick meal was handed out by the CIC, which was lovely. Later a second festival could be heard at the Flux Field. Since the groups knew each other better, the atmosphere became more relaxing which made the party more enjoyable. The music was quite good and beer was flowing around inside and outside our bodies. To end another great day, Stratum got a little visit once again. Japie ended up in Ameezing, fully utilizing the karaoke machine.
I’ve got my ion you Every year, the introduction committee thinks up a new slogan for the new chemical engineering students to wear. This year the choice fell upon a staple in the work of Michael Faraday: the ion.
Day 4: Pancakes and
Day 5: Finally freshmen
pubcrawls
At half past seven the breakfast already was set up and the F.O.R.T. was open for some ‘katercola’. The kids slowly gathered at the F.O.R.T. for food. Sadly enough, there were some water guns to keep everybody awake, which were used. To help staying awake, games were played at the Markthal. Mama Tijmen van Veen had the ideal game, called ‘Bulldozer’, to give the whole group energy. To end the week well, one more festival was arranged. This was the best one, because of the amount of beers two coins were worth, namely eight. Adding five golf balls made up for a great time and drunk people. So at Friday 120 kids went home, dirty and tired with a chance on a hangover. They call themselves the new Freshmen.
Thursday the program started a bit later, just to make sure that the kids would survive all-nighter Thursday. To cheer up their minds, the parents had to suffer. During breakfast the ingredients to make pancakes were at the crime scene. This resulted in all the parents and the IntroCie getting covered in flour, milk, syrup and eggs. No ponchos were used. During the day, the kids were ‘supposed’ to follow some workshops. At Helix there was a workshop about brewing beer at home. Mama Boris enthusiastically told about his own brand with the remains of his voice. It resulted in an article at the cursor website, chapeau. But the real day started with the pub crawl. Papa Roos had made a scheme to optimize the beer, but some pubs were so crowded, that the groups had to go in, grab a beer and get out. When the pubs closed, only people with a wristlet got into one of the student association’s parties. For the right mindset, some parents made a bet on who would stay up all night. Only papa Storm failed to make it till the end. Sadly, the candidate board, IntroCie and F.O.R.T.-cie could not join and ended up at Yannick’s place wetting especially Rick and Huub to keep them awake, thank you Dylan.
In this case it is a postitively charged oxygen ion. even though this normally does not happen in nature, the positive charge symbolizes the positive atmosphere during the introduction week. The logo itself represents a catalyst for freindship and a call to never stop reacting to and with others around you.
WRITTEN BY:
The IntroCie The IntroCie wanted to give an insight into their experiences of the introduction week.
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Autumn behind the scenes Chemistry in real life
When you’re reading this article, autumn has been going on for a while. The trees are colored red, yellow and orange, if they’re not completely bald already. The sky is grey and rainy and the temperature has dropped quite a bit. So on this rainy autumn day, we’ll be looking at some of the chemistry of the autumn season.
Hidden colors During the fall, quite a lot of trees turn from green to yellow or red. This is because chlorophyll, the pigment that causes the green color and provides photosynthesis for the trees, is an unstable molecule. The tree has to continually synthesize this little powerplant, but to do this, it needs warm temperatures and sunlight, which are in short supply during the autumn. So, the production of chlorophyll stops, allowing other molecules to shine. In particular, you’ll notice the carotenoids and flavonoids. Actually, these molecules were present in the leaf all along, but were hidden by the chlorophyll!
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One branch of these hidden molecules is are the flavonoids. Their color ranges from yellow flavonoids to red, purple or blue anthocyanins. The brightly colored flavonoids fulfill many important functions within plants, such as UV filtration, chemical messaging or even inhibiting against plant diseases. These ringed molecules are not only important for plants, but also have health benefits for humans. They have anti-viral, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects. It won’t surprise you to know that the flavonoids are found in many yellow colored fruits and vegetables, but it is also found in red wine and chocolate! Some even theorize the
flavonoids in wine are the reason why the French have a lower chance of heart disease than other Europeans! The carotenoids are the other molecules that are more visible without that pesky chlorophyll and causes a more orange color, something you might’ve already guessed from the name. It’s not just good for your eyes, it also gives color to the animal kingdom! The most well-known example of this are flamingos. These orange/pink birds are born with a dull grey plumage, but thanks to their carotene rich meal of algae they get a flashy pink feathers. If the flamingos eat other food without carotene, they would revert back to grey.
Spicing
up
your
fall
season To many, the leaves of fall are often accompanied by the familiar taste of fall. The sweetly spicy taste of nutmeg, the delicate spicy aroma of cinnamon on your hot beverage during a rainy day or the strong bitter taste of cloves in a stew all invoke a strong feeling of fall for many. To many western nations, especially America, the Halloween season hasn’t started before every possible food or drink has been hit with the pumpkin spice mania. Ever since the first sale of the nowadays often meme’d and infamous ‘Pumpkin spice latte’, the American pumpkin spice craze has been coming back stronger year after year. Anything from bagels and butters to dog treats is converted to pumpkin. This of course begs the question, how and why? Let’s start with the basics; spices. Spices impact the aroma, color and taste of food preparations and sometimes mask undesirable odors. The aroma of a spices is caused by the various volatile oils (alcohols, aldehydes, esters etc.) found inside, while the color is mostly attributed to the more inert components of the spice (carotene, chlorophylls, saffron etc.). The flavors of a spice are of a similar origin as the aroma as the oleoresins that provide taste are basically a less volatile oil mixed with a resin compound. Spices have played a major role in civilizations and the emergence of cultures and nations due to their use in food preparation. This is however not the only use of this particular substance. The recorded use of spices for their medicinal and pharmacological properties can be dated back as far as 2700 B.C. in China. This means that not only do
these spices enhance flavor and odor, they are sometimes also good for medicinal purposes. Now that we have the basics, on to the somewhat more difficult part. It might not come as a surprise that every single group of spices contain a different mixture of sometimes up to 120 different volatile oils and oleoresins. The combined mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves contains at least 340 flavour compounds. This number of flavors brings with it an extremely difficult tightrope act in trying to produce a consistent flavor of your spice mixture. The good news however, is that the human brain can automatically fill in the blanks if provided with around only 5-10% of that natural flavor compound mixture. This means that spice manufacturers can use only the major players in the 340-component mixture. In the case of the pumpkin spice these include cinnamic aldehydes for cinnamon, eugenol for clove or allspice, terpenes such as sabinene for nutmeg, and zingiberene for ginger.
seasons are traditionally home to the hardier dishes that include potatoes, meat stews and carrots that might not contain as much taste as food grown in warmer seasons. Adding a strong earthy spice to these ingredients gives a better flavor to the dish. The second part is the medicinal properties of these spices. Nutmeg and cloves are both warming spices that help relax the smooth muscle linings of the digestive track and increase the heat production of the body. Both are also used as anti-nausea and antivomiting medicines in larger volumes but these properties are also lightly present in smaller doses. In short, a simple answer can be attributed to why these spices are popular during fall: they taste good and they warm you up inside. A somewhat disappointing answer from a scientific viewpoint, but a short one at that. Unfortunately the machination behind the human taste is a hard nut to crack. Fortunately, everyone already owns the perfect taste determining machine: the human tongue.
WRITTEN BY:
Now that we know the how of the initial question, why are these spices so popular during the fall season? A concise answer to this question is difficult to give, as it usually is in any matter related to taste. In the case of these fall spices it’s roughly a two part answer.
Marc Willemsen Alex van de Greef Marc and Alex wanted to give you a sneak peek into the inner workings of some autumn phenomena.
Firstly, the spices pair well with each other and all provide a heavy flavor to simple dishes. The fall and winter
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The introspection of a
Korean
mind
Spraakwater
Writing is an arduous undertaking, because it takes immense effort and time to come up with something worthy for others to read. I would like to thank Raoul Hendrix for this precious opportunity. Only on rare occasions do I get to share my thoughts after meticulous reflection. From this, I hope you will have a better insight on why I decided to study chemical engineering. In alchemy, a primitive form of chemistry, scholars in the past sought out ways to transform common material into valuable product. Chemical engineering can be said to be founded upon such a premise. A most pertinent example of this is the Haber-Bosch process, which allows the production of ammonia, from readily available atmospheric nitrogen. For the first time in history, the advent of inexpensive artificial fertilizers gifted us with an abundant food supply. Today, the role that chemical engineers play from the food we eat, the clothes we wear, to advanced semiconductor materials, cannot be overstated. The cornucopia of conveniences associated with life that we enjoy today, are owed to the astute applications of chemistry. In the twenty-first century, we face a triple whammy of unpredictable climate change, environmental pollution and finding sustainable energy sources. Thankfully, chemistry has the answers. Existing and emerging
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technologies hold the key in mitigating the adverse effects of these problems. For instance, scientists have developed Carbon Capture and Storage systems to reduce the effects of global warming, pioneered usage of biodegradable plastics and cleaner burning biofuels. Among the valuable contributions chemical engineers have made, the prospect of securing a better energy source for the world is the most awe-inspiring to me personally, simply because the “machine� of the global economy runs on affordable fuel sources. The very thought of pursuing my further studies to support the exponential growth of the global economy is both exciting and meaningful to me. A chemical engineer, apart from his proficiency in the disciplines of chemistry, physics and math, must possess creativity to solve challenges, have interpersonal communication skills and be analytical. Transition of laboratory experiments into industrial mass production is one of the many tasks
of a chemical engineer. Challenges of such monumental scale are of astronomical levels of complexity, and are certainly not circumvented by a single individual.
WRITTEN BY:
Do Kyum Kim Do Kyum wanted to share his motivation to study chemical engineering with you.
A Discovery
in oriental chemistry Study tour 2018
Early in the morning of July 7th, 2018, a group of 28 adventurous students and a professor gathered in front of the Helix building to depart towards Schiphol Airport. One and a half year of preparation, a short bus drive and some touristic chaos at the airport later, we finally entered the airplane. Once the airplane had taken off, ‘A Discovery in Oriental Chemistry!’ had commenced.
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After a brief stop at Warsaw airport, our flight continued towards our first destination of the journey. In the morning of July 8th, the airplane touched down on South Korean soil and we were met with the first culture shocks. On the road from the airport to Seoul the amount of tall buildings, residential towers and skyscrapers continued to increase reaching a sky high in the Seoul city centre. The vastness of this city would later be confirmed once more with a look from above in the N Seoul Tower. Apart from the culture shock, there was also a jetlag to overcome. Many participants have combatted this with varying methods, of which chicken, beer and a baseball match proved to be some of the most efficient methods. The day after our arrival, as a kick-off for the educational part of our tour, a visit to the Seoul National University was planned. This visit to their beautiful and enormous campus, accompanied with lots of hospitality, was a good start of our educational program and promised a whole deal for the rest of the program. With remaining visits to KIST, KETI and Samsung, the educational program in Seoul was complete. After having seen the architectural highlights of Seoul, a chilling, yet very impressive visit to the Demilitarized Zone and a last breakfast at Paris Baguette, it was time to flee from the crowd temporarily and seek out some welldeserved peace in Sokcho. Sokcho, a small coastal city located between the Seoraksan National Park and the East Sea (more commonly known as the Sea of Japan), attracts many national and international tourists every year. This year Japie was included! During our stay in Sokcho
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we visited two attractions. You guessed it: the Seoraksan National Park and the beach. In the park we enjoyed challenging hikes rewarded with breath-taking views, after which we could lay our tired bodies to rest at the beach or floating on the waves. To close off the day, a large group found its destination in a karaoke bar which led to lots of laughter. A small group decided it was still too early for rest and decided to stay up all night to watch the sunrise, a view well worth staying up for, at least, if you were still able to keep your eyes open. Our journey continued to the fourth and second largest cities of South Korea respectively: Daegu and Busan. Daegu, located just south-east of the centre of the country, is known for its very high temperature. This was of course quite the inconvenience considering the fact that there was already a heat wave going on during our entire study tour. Yet the close to 40 °C temperatures have never felt
so refreshing until just after leaving the POSCO steelworks factory where scorching hot steel beams were rolled. It should therefore be no surprise that we were happy to lie on the beach again upon our arrival in Busan. With plenty of sightseeing to be done in both cities, as well as interesting company and university visits and quite some free time to enjoy, this made for a great last week in Korea. And so, after two full weeks in this beautiful country it was time to catch the boat to our next discovery: Japan! Our first view of Japan could not have been better: watching the sun rise above the Japanese islands was a gorgeous scenery topped by very few others. Upon mooring at Hakata Port, Fukuoka, our second part of the journey had begun. Yet for someone it had ended. Sadly, this was the moment to say goodbye to professor Martin van Sint Annaland and we did so by sharing our delicious first meal in Japan, a relief for those who
“..many experiences faded in contrast to what was about to come in Hiroshima..� had a hard time with the rather spicy Korean cuisine. After this farewell, the group continued to explore the temples of Fukuoka, which already proved there was a big difference with the Korean temples. In the evening, professor Bert Meijer was welcomed with another dinner and we were once again with a complete group to continue the rest of our travel. Origami folding with students at the Kyushu University, a showroom full of flashy robots at Yaskawa Electric or a vending machine in the middle of the plant at Mitsubishi Chemical, our discovery of Japan started off rather impressive. However, many experiences faded in contrast to what was about to come in Hiroshima. It is hard to imagine the fact that you are standing in a place which was destroyed just over seventy years ago, taking the lives of tens of thousands of people in the process in just a matter of seconds. The queer feeling that accompanies you while walking around the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is hard to get rid of, despite the other beautiful attractions present, such as the castle and Japanese gardens.
After this impressive visit to Hiroshima, it was time to move on to the old capital of Japan: Kyoto. As can be expected from a city with such a long history, the temples and palaces of Kyoto and the nearby Nara were some of the most beautiful buildings encountered. Many known tourist attractions, such as the Golden Pavilion and the Fushimi Inari Shrine, as well as slightly lesser known attractions, such as the Arashiyama area and Nijo Castle, were visited. After the exploration of Kyoto, from which we had to conclude that there was still too much left to see, it was once again time to get some wellearned rest. This time, the chosen location was a ryokan; a traditional Japanese inn. Here we enjoyed a traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast, the latter not being a good match for everyone. Once again there was a group who had more important matters to attend to than their welldeserved rest. Staying up to watch the passing hurricane for example! Sadly, as the hurricane changed its direction, we only got slightly scratched by it and no more than a tropical storm was visible to us.
After Kyoto, we brought a visit to the city of Nagoya. Here we paid an interesting visit to the Nagoya University and the Toyota Chemical plant, as well as to the classical and modern architectural highlights of Nagoya. For the final destination of this study tour, we concluded in the gigantic Japanese capital Tokyo. While we probably could have spent the entirety of the tour in Tokyo itself, we sadly only had four days to discover the ins and outs of Tokyo. For this reason of course, the experience had to be taken to the highest level and that could only be done so by visiting the enormous heights of the Tokyo Skytree and Mount Fuji. So after going out with a bang and a free day to say goodbye to Japan in your own way, it was time to head back home, as our discovery in oriental chemistry had been completed.
WRITTEN BY:
Sven Roefs As chairman of the study tour committee 2018 Sven would like to share his story on this incredible journey.
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Cryptic chemistry Puzzle
The puzzle of this edition is a cryptic crossword. The answers to this puzzle are all related to chemistry or Japie and are desribed in a cryptic way. For example the answer to the hint: “A beast in chemistry” would be “Mole”.
Across
5. Stranger raised to nobility 7. Persian gold 10. Classroom furniture 11. Funniest element 12. Illuminates you four times a year 14. Response to chemicals 15. Keeps you strong 16. Element closest to an idiot 17. Sexy factory equipment 20. A good copy of a French car 22. Broke 25. Hurtful metal 26. Able to pay for liquids 27. Lambert absorbs this drink 28. Word that can follow “oral”or “physical” 33. After the evening atmosphere 35. Hot refreshing label 36. Mean home 37. Clean students 38. Attraction in the faculty
Down
1. What’s wrong with the material? 2. Money for police
13. Secured bar
24. Lonely plastic
3. Without it you can lose 23 teeth
16. Disinterested kind of committee
29. Known by every chemical engineer
4. Home of twisted chemists
18. Repeating performer of chemistry
30. Tent of all courses
6. A + in chemistry
19. A breather
31. Unsplittable former chairman
8. Takes the wrinkles out
21. Sign of nobility
32. Proficient at basic chemistry
9. Single student with a degree of success
23. Periodical with explosive content
34. God grades
Last edition the winner, Indy Hoeks, received a Nespresso Krups Pixie coffee machine. This time, the winner will receive a JBL E65BT NC wireless headphone ,courtesy of ExxonMobil. In order to win this prize, you need to mail a scan of the finished puzzle to tlicht.st@tue.nl before the ... .Disclaimer: only regular members are eligible for the prize.
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T-Licht Issue 23.1
Tea, beer and sunny weather Culture shock
From the very first year of my bachelor I knew that I wanted to do my final bachelor project abroad. Since my only criterion was that I wanted to go to an English speaking country, my choice soon fell on the UK. My chemical interest further narrowed it down to the city of Durham, which is in the North East of England. Close to Newcastle is what I usually say, because most people at least know that from shows such as Geordie Shore. That’s right, I was going to party with the Geordies. While Durham is still quite close to the Netherlands, there are still enough cultural differences. During my first tour of the department my supervisor was quick to tell me that tea time was at 10:30 and 15:30, during which you could buy cheap tea for 25 pence. This tea was the typical strong English tea that you are almost forced to drink with milk, because otherwise it’s almost undrinkable, even for a tea lover like me. So, I can confirm that the stereotype of the English drinking a lot of tea is true. However, not all stereotypes are as true. Before I left I bought a new raincoat, because England is known for its depressing weather. Or so I thought. I can honestly say that I probably only had to use my raincoat a handful of times. Apparently the North East of England actually has dry weather quite similar to the Netherlands, but only a few degrees cooler. This brings me to my next point. I arrived in Durham in the middle of
April, during which it was still quite cold (in my opinion). So there I was walking in my big sweater wearing an unnecessary raincoat while the locals were happily walking around in shorts and dresses! Apparently, true Northern men start wearing shorts from April on, which even people from the South of England are amazed by.
All in all I had a blast in Durham, which while small has a lot of character and history! WRITTEN BY:
Woutje ter Weel Woutje had a bloody good time in England and would definitely recommend people to
While I’m sad to say that I did not get to party with the Geordies (probably for the best) I did get to experience some of the drinking culture, which in short is just a lot of drinking beer in the pub. Anyone who has ever been to the UK will know that foam is a big no no overthere. In Durham a very small layer of foam is still acceptable. However if they would serve you the usual two fingers of foam that you get here, you could actually go back to the bar and demand that they fill your glass properly. Otherwise they are robbing you of your beer!
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The bio-industry called ‘Master Thesis’ How much space does a master thesis student have? Carte blanche
The first quartile is coming to an end, meaning that most students have or have had their exams. However, this is not the case when you are doing your master thesis, which means that you are doing research for seven months (often longer). You probably all know the crowded room, close to the entrance of the Helix building which you pass when you go to the Japie-room. At the beginning of the year this room is only half full, but during the year it fills up. Most rooms for master thesis students are overcrowded in the second semester, resulting in often poor working conditions for students. Since the university likes to show how sustainable and healthy it is, I am going to do an investigation on how sustainable they treat master thesis students. To find out how the situation is, I went on an expedition to measure all ‘afstudeer ruimtes’ (student rooms for thesis students) and their capacities. Most rooms were easy to find, but some were located behind
a laboratory. In total fourteen rooms in the Helix building were found and measured. Not all rooms were completely full, but most places were already reserved for people who still had to arrive or would come after the
first period. Normally all the places n the rooms are used in the second semester and therefore the full capacity of the room is used in the measurements. The results are shown in Table 1. Most rooms have a default size of 6 m by 5.5 m, or half of that. Table 1 also contains two rooms, which are technically not really from our department but of the biomedical engineering department. These were also the two most crowded rooms with 2.1 and 1.6 m2 per person (you should really have a look there, it’s on the third floor). Keep in mind that these areas also include desk and aisle. So it could always be worse, but that is not a reason to neglect the working conditions of our own department. On average a master thesis student has 2.8 m2, to put that into perspective: a calf in the bioindustry has a space of 1.5-1.8 m2 . One may
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argue that the working space doesn’t have to be that spacious since also a lot of experiments and synthesis are done, meaning that you will spend a significant amount of time at other places. As all of you know, synthesis and experiments are not a fulltime thing. Data needs to be analyzed and in the end a thesis has to be written. Besides that, there are thesis projects, which are almost entirely behind a desk (modeling of systems).
“I cannot imagine that a room the size of a professor office, is made for 21 people.” One of the ‘notorious’ places is on the first floor, also called ‘de vrieskist’ (the fridge). This room has no windows and is the only room with no access to daylight. As general guideline concerning daylight, the ‘veiligheidsbesluit fabrieken en werkplaatsen’ is often quoted. Here it is stated that in rooms where people work two or more hours a day, at least 1/20 of the area should be the area of the windows. This is however not a law but only a guideline.
However, the university is promoting itself as a sustainable place with the slogan “Practice what you teach!”. In order to achieve this sustainability, the university has adopted the criteria for socially responsible purchasing of the ‘Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland’ (government agency). One of these criteria is about daylight in buildings. A daylight factor of at least 1% has to be present in rooms where people work for more than two hours. The daylight factor is roughly the ratio of the daylight intensity in the room divided by the daylight intensity outside. Technically the Helix building was built before these criteria were adopted, meaning that they do not apply here, but if the same room would be in the Flux building, it would violate the rules. This does not really conform the slogan “Practice what you teach”. I therefore hope that this situation will change soon since this is quite hypocritical. The next point is about the growth of our study. In the past five years, the number of students at the university has grown with 34%. Even though most of the growth is in other departments, we still grow steadily as a department. So how much space is there still ‘available’ for how many students? When we take 2.5 m2 per student and use the same rooms as there are now, there would in the most optimal case be place for an additional sixteen students. This
is likely not enough since the last five years the number of first-year bachelor students has increased quite a lot. At the end of the year there is already workspace shortage due to bachelor thesis students, but over a couple of years all rooms will also be fully stacked with master students. My question to the faculty staff would therefore be: we know this problem is coming, how will we solve it? PhD staff doesn’t have that much space either, so we cannot take their rooms. Will the professors sacrifice some of their office space for student rooms or can we expect more darkroom ‘vrieskisten’? Some people might think: but if biomedical engineering can have 1.6 m2 per student, we can have this too and thereby creating hundred additional places instead of sixteen. You should definitely pay a visit to their room. I cannot imagine that a room the size of a professor office, is made for 21 people. I’m already thinking to do a follow-up article about CO2 levels in lecture rooms and study rooms. To be continued…
WRITTEN BY:
Thomas Werkhorst After walking past the large student room near the entrance for 4 years, Thomas was curious how much space master students have on average in our department..
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Deep eutetic solvents PhD article
Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are mixtures with an unusually large melting point depression. They gained interest as a new class of solvents, driven by the increasing interest in green chemistry. The fundamentals of these systems have yet gained limited attention, while for applications these are of great importance. Quantifying the liquid window could provide guidelines for desired properties based on the pure components. At the beginning of this century, Abbott et al. [1] reported that mixtures of urea and choline chloride exhibit a rather spectacular melting point depression, this mixture in several compositions is depicted in Figure 1. Since then a lot of research in this field resulted in a wide range of DESs and applications. Being designer solvents, it is believed that for many applications a specific combination of components will result in high-performance, safer or greener solvents. A few examples research focuses on are volatile fatty acid extractions, CO2 capture and metal-ion extraction. However, fundamental research into the nature of these solvents is still rare and often focuses more on the interactions between the solvent and the application rather than between the components themselves. In order to learn more, here we treat the DES as a two-component system and try to understand the interactions causing the very low melting phenomena. The significant temperature drop that is observed can be achieved only by strong attractive interactions, thus non-ideal behavior between the components of a eutectic mixture. Melting point depressions for binary mixtures are often described using phase diagrams; a schematic representation of the solid-liquid
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potential of that liquid, resulting in a decrease of the melting temperature of that mixture.
Figure 1: Choline chloride - urea mixtures (mole fraction eurea from left to right: 0, 0.33, 0.5, 0.66) at 303 K. (S-L) equilibrium is depicted in Figure 2. For an ideal mixture at a given composition, the melting temperature (T) depends solely on the enthalpy of fusion (ΔH) and the melting temperature (T*) of the pure component [2,3]. This can be calculated for both components using the Schröder-van Laar equation given in Equation 1.
The position where the two curves meet is the eutectic point. The corresponding eutectic temperature (Teut) and eutectic composition (xeut) follow from the condition TA (xeut) = TB (xeut). This equation describes how the melting point of a mixture, without interactions, changes with composition. Adding a solute to any ideal liquid lowers the chemical
In case of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) however, hydrogen bond interaction between the components often lead to attractions. Here we account for any non-ideality, hydrogen bonding and other possible mechanisms, through general enthalpic interactions by using regular solution (RS) theory, resulting in Equation 2 [4]. The effective interaction parameter χ, quantifies the binary interactions. The quantity χ essentially describes the difference in interactions of components with themselves and with each other, hence a negative χ indicates attractive interactions. Here χ is found by fitting experimental data with Equation 2 for both components simultaneously, resulting in a single interaction parameter for the system.
To validate this theory (RS) we developed two new DESs and measured their phase diagrams, Figure 3 (data points). The purple system (left) consists of succinic acid, a dicarboxylic acid, with tetrapentylammonium bromide (TPABr), a quaternary ammonium
Figure 2: A schematic representation of a solid-liquid phase diagram. The dashed curves represent the ideal liquidus lines. The solid curves the real liquidus lines. The intersection is the eutectic point. salt, the blue system (right) consists of erythritol, a polyol, also with TPABr. The dashed curves represent the ideal solid-liquid (S-L) equilibrium curves (predictions from equation 1), while the solid curves result from Equation 2 with χ fitted to the data points of the solidus line (full dots), thus at the constraint TA (xeut) = TB (xeut). From the standard deviation between the fit and measured data point we can conclude that with this method we can reliably quantify the S-L equilibrium curves of DESs from eutectic temperature measurements only and quantify the interactions resulting in the non-ideal melting point depression. The obtained negative χ values suggest that there are strong attractions between the different molecules in these DESs and that the attraction between TPABr and succinic acid is
significantly stronger than between TPABr and erythritol. This can be explained by comparing the molecular structures of both hydrogen bond donors (HBD); carboxylic acids are stronger in their ability to donate hydrogen bonds than alcohols. The presence and importance of hydrogen bonding interactions in DESs are often declared as their key characteristic [5,6]. Here we show, however, that any strong attraction between the components in a binary mixture can greatly enhance the melting temperature depression. Indeed, the interaction parameter χ is not exclusively imposed by hydrogen bonding interactions. To inquire whether the difference here is due to hydrogen bonding. In conclusion, we showed that we can describe the S-L phase behavior of two different DESs with Regular
Figure 3: Binary phase diagrams of DES systems succinic acid -TPABr (purple) and erythritoal TPABr (blue). Data points are experimentally obtained. Dashed curves indicate the predicted ideal liquidus lines. Solid lines indicate the fitted RS theory liquidus lines.
Solution theory, using a single interaction parameter. It follows that a stronger hydrogen bond donor results in a larger melting point depression and a lower eutectic temperature. The combination of the melting temperatures, the enthalpies of fusion, and strength of the attraction determine the location of the S-L equilibria and the eutectic temperature. Regular solution theory has, to our knowledge, not yet been applied to DESs. The main advantage of using this classical, simple theory is the fact that the interaction parameter χ is a single free parameter that characterizes the interaction, which can easily be rationalized and obtained from straightforward measurements. The resulting χ parameters from various DESs provide insights into the properties in these liquids, by relating them to molecular interactions.
WRITTEN BY:
Laura Kollau Laura is working on her PhD in the SPC group and is a former member of the editorial board.
[1] Abbott, A. P., Capper, G., Davies, D. L., Rasheed, R. K. & Tambyrajah, V. Novel solvent properties of choline chloride/urea mixtures. Chem. Commun. 70–71 (2003). [2] Schroder, I. Über die Abhängigkeit der Löslichkeit eines festen. Zeit. Phys. Chem. 9, (1890). [3] Washburn, E. W. & Read, J. W. The Freezing point solubility law for ideal solutions. PNAS 1, 191–195 (1915). [4] Hildebrand, J. H. & Scott, R. L. The Solubility of Non-Electrolytes. (Rheinhold, 1949). [5] Smith, E. L., Abbott, A. P. & Ryder, K. S. Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) and Their Applications. Chem. Rev. 114, 11060–11082 (2014).
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World class hygge in a bottle Beer of the quartile
Everyone seems to be looking for it nowadays: that good feeling of happiness, wellness and contentment. As the Danish would say: we’re looking for hygge, to keep us warm and cozy in the upcoming months. Summer has come to an end, autumn is coming round the corner, and by the time you are reading this, winter will be coming very soon. Far before that winter though, even before autumn was actually there, the incredible amount of six stock managers came to the F.O.R.T. during the introduction week. A new beer of the season was to be tasted and, maybe even more importantly, there was a new stock manager to be inducted into the rituals of the tasting. So Luuk Stemkens, now stock manager of the 31st F.O.R.T. committee, set off together with Guido Hagenaars to find some decent candidates for our Beer of the Season. They came back with a great variety of beers, ranging from very balanced grisette, to explosive IPA’s and some velvety stouts and porters.
From that moment, the tasting was on. And of course, just like many times before, the beers tasted so good that we had just a few too many before dinner. Naturally, the dinner that Troy Oude Bekke had prepared, was in turn so good that we all ate too much to be able to properly drink after it. All our luxury problems aside, we managed to decide on our indisputable favorite beer in the end.
Keller started experimenting on their kitchen stove. After mimicking some existing beers, they started to create and brew their own recipes. They started to take part in – and win - many brewing competitions, and started to make name when Bjergsjø’s brother opened a beer shop and started selling their beers. Finally, in 2006 the two friends decided to found the Mikkeller brewing company.
The beer we chose comes from a very special brewery, one of my personal favorites even. The story of Mikkeller is one of great worldwide success. It all started when home brewers Mikkel Borg Bjergsø and Kristian Klarup
It should be noticed that at the time they actually became a brewery, Mikkeller did not own any brewing equipment other than what they had in their kitchens. And the remarkable thing is: they still do not have their own brewery today! With their success progressing in the early years, the two men started renting equipment at established breweries to be able to cope with larger batches. A few months later, Kristian Keller quit the brewery to go back to his former job, and Bergsjø was on his own in the company. This did however not mean a decline in the spreading fame of the brewery. Mikkel Bergsjø turned out to be a brewing genius, making the world discover more and more about the different flavors of beer.
While Mikkeller still do not have their own equipment, making them a socalled gypsy brewery, they are selling to over forty countries nowadays. The main part of brewing is not actually done in Denmark, but just a bit more than an hour away from Eindhoven in Belgium, at the Proefbrouwerij. All the thinking about the beers, their ingredients and their tastes is done in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. With a team of only ten people Mikkeller has brewed a staggering amount of almost 950 different beers over the last years. Of course it is not possible for any brewery to produce such an amount of beers all throughout the year at the same time. Most of the Mikkeller beers are therefore brewed in small batches, only for certain countries, or only available for a short amount of time. The consistency of the beers has awarded Mikkeller many recognitions and awards. They have been in the annual RateBeer Top 10 for breweries worldwide multiple times, and individual beers win prizes all of the time. RateBeer does not only rate breweries, it also rates the beers these breweries make. Each year, they make a top 15 per style. And guess what: in the porter category, at fourth place we find our very new Beer of the Season! So then, what makes this Mikkeller Porter such a special and amazing beer? Let’s first have a look at the ingredients. Since they are just water, malts, sugar, hops and yeast, it does not seem too special at all at first glance. But give these ingredients to Mikkel Bergsjø, and he will make them into an impressively powerful, yet soft porter. At an ABV of 8% the beer is on the heavy side for a porter. The bit extra alcohol however, sums up very nicely with the chocolate and very light coffee flavors of the malt bill. The
brown foam that pours on top of this delicate black-brown beer even more reminds of a nice smooth chocolate. Even though all these cacao hints make the beer quite sweet, the balance with the roasted malts is made into perfection. Together with the hops, they add a delicate and pleasant bitter to this vibrant beer. For me personally, one of the best things about Mikkeller Porter is that it is so basic. Throughout the last year, I have tasted a lot of beers that had special ingredients in them, supposedly to add up to the taste. Think of IPA’s and sours with every fruit that’s to be found – even sea buckthorn did not manage to stay out of the kettle – stouts with coffee or chocolate or maple syrup, barrel-aging almost any beer with a high ABV. This reached its top last summer when I was in Stockholm in Omnipollo’s brewpub. There, they served a – hold on to your seat - corn wheat saison with vanilla, coconut, croissants, cheese and yellow raisin jam.
The basic attitude of the beer, combined with the hygge feeling it gives you while drinking, make it an absolute must-try beverage for the colder winter months. Treat yourself to a glass of happiness, whether it is next to the fireplace or in the nice warmth of a F.O.R.T. Thursday drink. It won’t be the cheapest beer you can get, but the taste you get in return will not be cheap either!
WRITTEN BY:
Dennis Thuy The memories of the tasting may be a bit fuzzy, but the stock managers of the F.O.R.T. are sure this is a very exciting Beer of the Season!
Even though all these additions can really add a new dimension to a beer, it sometimes seems like ‘normal’ beer is not good enough anymore nowadays, or at least a bit boring. Therefore I am really glad about beers like this beer of the season, that proves that amazing skill can make outstanding tastes with only the basic ingredients. A good kind of back to the basics. And as hipster as that may sound, I’m pretty sure it’s one of the least hipster things going on in the craft beer world today.
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DSM nutritional products an internship in Switzerland Internship
As final part of the master studies, I decided to do my industrial internship at DSM Nutritional Products in Sisseln, Switzerland, for 3.5 months. On this site of the large Dutch company vitamins, pharmaceutical, cosmetics etc. are being produced. When writing this article, I’ve only been here for one week, so I will mainly talk about the first impressions I had and what my project will be about. On Monday the 3rd of September, a welcome day for new employees was organized at DSM Nutritional Products in Sisseln. I was being picked up at 8 o’clock at the gate, together with some other people who were also starting that day, or had just started a few weeks before. We first received a general introduction about the company and got to meet the site managing director René Vroege (who is actually from The Netherlands). It was made very clear that safety is the most important aspect while working here. This also includes the accuracy with which the products are being produced, since they are intended for human and animal consumption.
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Everybody was automatically subscribed for a mandatory safety training.
it’s formulated from oil to grains that can be mixed in, for example, livestock feed.
After lunch everyone was directed to the department in which they would be working. For me this was the department for plant improvement. This department focuses on all different kinds of projects with the goal to improve site. The department is subdivided in different smaller groups and I’m part of the formulating group. For my project I will be focusing on improving the formulation of Vitamin A acetate. After the Vitamin A acetate is produced, it’s not directly ready for consumption, so that’s why
The first week was mainly focused on stating the goal of my project, getting familiar with the process and on meeting a lot of people, such as analysts, shift leaders and operators. One of the things I wasn’t completely prepared for was the fact that I was going to have to speak German most of the time. Luckily I can understand most of it. However, when people start talking with a Swiss accent, I have to pass. Still, when I ask them: ‘Hochdeutsch, bitte!’, they continue in standard German most of the time.
Even after being here one week, I can already noticed some improvements. I agreed with my supervisor to mainly speak German with each other, and only English when I really don’t understand it. Hopefully I can do the final presentation for the company in German, because then also people can attend that don’t speak English that well.
“Having no stove gets me creative with trying new recipes in the microwave.” For this project I will be using a Lean/Six Sigma approach, which is a method to systematically innovate processes. It consists of five different phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. First I have to define the problem in a quantitative way. Then I have to find out which parameters influence the problem and how this could be improved. After this, the improvements can be implemented. The project includes a lot of different aspects, such as analyzing data. However, the most important part of this project is to talk to a lot of people from different departments, in order to understand the full process. My project is subdivided into four different
subjects. I will start with the first one, the fluctuating product content, and see how far we’ll come. Of course, I’m not working 24 hours every day, so still some time left to explore the surroundings. Sisseln is very close to the border with Germany, and is only separated by the Rhine. There is even a bridge, still remaining from the 15th century, over which you can only go by foot. This bridge leads to a small touristic village called Bad Säckingen with restaurants and shops. When going a little more to the north of that village, the ‘Schwarzwald’ already starts. Since I brought my bicycle with me, the ‘Schwarzwald’ is a very nice place to improve my climbing skills. When going west from Sisseln, following the Rhine, you arrive in Basel. By car Basel is less than half an hour, so I plan to visit it in the next coming weeks. Another big city that is close to Sisseln is Zürich, which is around a forty minute drive away. The advantage of being this close to the border is that I can get my groceries in Germany instead of Switzserland, saving me a lot of money. Many citizens of Switzerland go shopping in Germany, not only because it’s much cheaper, but also because they can get the taxes back. When driving across the border, there is quite a large traffic jam resulting from everybody showing their receipts and passport at the office there.
walk away from my office, together with a colleague. One advantage is that the room is cleaned regularly. However, there’s no stove and no Wi-Fi here. This does get me creative with spending my free time. For example, I watch the Vuelta with German comments on the television, I go running after work and cycling in the weekends. Furthermore, I’ve discovered the podcasts section on Spotify, which I can download on my work and listen to in the evenings and weekends. Having no stove also gets me creative with trying new recipes in the microwave. For example, I figured out that cooking pasta or rice at 900 Watt is quite easy. All in all, I hope the coming months will be a very learning and fun experience, before I graduate and start a citizen’s life.
WRITTEN BY:
Janne van Gisbergen Janne will be doing her internship in Switzerland from September until Christmas
I currently live in a guesthouse of the company, which is only a 10 minute
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To wear or not to wear Letting of some steam
Ever since I can remember, and unfortunately I have to say this is already over five years, around me there were people walking with Japie-logos at their backs. I myself also had the honor to wear this beautiful (although there is some discussion on this topic at the moment) logo on my back. But when do you wear it and how to get a shirt with your name on it? A new edition of ‘Hoe heurt het eigenlijk?’ is finally here!
How to obtain a shirt Last year, a lot of shirts were walking around. As a member of the board I was of course one of them, but because we could use a lot of help there were many active members as well. To new freshmen (or second year students) it might seem like everyone and their dad were able to get a beautiful committee shirt with their name and the Japie logo on it. This is surely not the case though! The privilege of getting a committee shirt is something solely for, you guessed it, a member of a Japie-committee. The students with hart for our association and who work to organize some great activities, or do something different for all members, have the right to buy a shirt and have this printed/embroidered. In exchange for this effort, the printing of the Japie
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T-Licht Issue 23.1
logo can be declared at Japie. Some committees are excluded from this rule because they can embroider their own logo, but for this you should check the eternal decision 223.06. This might seem like a lot of work for just a shirt, but it is something that pulls attention and tells everyone around you, that you are part of the organization or an active member in general. So, if ever you feel like wearing a beautiful committee shirt, apply for a (or multiple) committee(s) immediately!
When to wear it With great power of course comes great responsibility. As the shirt is not made for everyone, the ones with this privilege should know how and when to wear it. Especially last year during the famous g.A.L.A. (Grote Actieve Leden Activiteit), this
turned out to be more difficult than expected. Having the opportunity to wear a Japie-logo pimped shirt means you should at least wear said shirt at certain occasions. It might speak for itself to wear the shirt at the activities you/your committee organized, but there is more! During our worldfamous T-Feesten at Stratumseind it is certainly advised to wear your most beautiful committee shirt, or a mix of clothing if you’re in multiple committees at the same time. This of course to ensure that you look ‘prominent’ and you can take some great (drunk) committee photos.
“Joining one of these photos is a great honor,”
Special occasions Apart from the parties and your own activities, there are some more special occasions. Every year, the board comes up with two great activities devoted to our active members. These are called the k.A.L.A. and the g.A.L.A. (“kleine- en grote actieve leden activiteit”). Roughly translated to small- and grand active members activity, these events are designed to say thank you to every active member this association has. You might say it is a logical decision to wear your committee clothing here, right? As said before though, especially this year this turned out to be not so obvious. For me, this was a shocker and with this article I hope to give a wake-up call to every active member joining the k.A.L.A. and g.A.L.A. next year. I mean everyone would have a weird look on their face when you are joining a soccer game and the players run on the pitch in their leisure clothing.
“the Japie-logo on the back is something you should be proud of!”
These two activities are not the only occasions where one should wear his/her committee clothing though. As some of the readers might have experienced, the general members meeting can be ruthless when someone steps up for his/her presentation without a committee shirt. Exceptions of situations where ‘Ron’s textiel’ was slow yet again left aside, one should always put on the pride of the committee when giving an update to the G.M.M. Violation of the rule should in every case lead to a member of the G.M.M. pointing said infringement out and demanding a poem of the offender during the next any other business round. This poem then must rhyme and preferably be funny, although this has proven to be hard for some members. Last but certainly not least, there is the dinner in Maastricht after the change of boards. Although the situation above might already have applied to you, namely the G.M.M. before we leave, it is really nice to wear you committee clothing here. After the travel by train of an hour, we go on to walk to the statue of our beloved Jan Pieter Minckelers to lay flowers. Subsequently to this, multiple pictures are made, starting of course with the board and the F.O.R.T.-cie. However, when these are made it is a tradition to make pictures with all chairmen/ secretaries/treasurers/number fours/ etc. Joining one of these photos is a great honor, but you can imagine looking a bit out of place if everyone is wearing a suit/committee shirt except
you. So even if you have not presented on the Thursday of the G.M.M., make sure to wear your committee shirt when joining the dinner in Maastricht.
So, ‘hoe heurt het eigenlijk’? Whether your brand new blouse looks like one from a traffic worker, or the characters of your name are printed way to small; the Japie-logo on the back is something the association paid for and something you should be proud of! So bottom-line, wear your committee clothing with pride and whenever you feel like it, but at least at the before mentioned occasions, because everyone should know who are the driving forces behind this association!
WRITTEN BY:
Bart van den Bersselaar As former and current active member of our association, Bart wanted to express his concerns about the way committee clothing is being worn.
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Who am I? A peak into being bicultural Carte blanche
If your brain feels like it got to do some extra complicated thinking when posed with the question of “Where are you from?”, then you probably have a story like mine (or a more interesting one). Check my passport and you would realise I am Austrian but then again people ask “Where are you ACTUALLY from?” and then you look at me (or a photo of mine) and you think, “but she doesn’t look like a typical Austrian” Well, no shit Sherlock! Anyone who has relatively good vision can say that I look Indian and not Austrian. Well let me tell you, I am actually neither. But then where are you from Limi? I don’t know, or wait I am bicultural. These days where we all move around from city to city and country to country and continent to continent and planet to planet (okay maybe not the last one, quite yet), an identity crisis like mine is quite natural. Now how do we feel about it? Are we happy being in the midst of 2 (or more) identities or do we feel lost? Do we feel at home everywhere or nowhere? People who
take part in two cultures in varying degrees are known to be bicultural.
Who am I?
The following poem shows how it is to be born into two cultures. Initially you may be weirded out and lost but once you embrace your biculturalism, you will realise how lovely it is. The rest of the poem is left to your interpretation.
Jingles and bingles as the girl sprout arrives Cherries and blossoms for the new one alive Twists and turns and rock and roll Yet little told to the new soul. Harps and drums slowly tread home For another tot was to be born Iffy it was, for little was knownKnown to me, as the newborn.
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Lot to ask and lot to say Queries and worries haunt me all day Who am I? Two ways lay For raised I was in both ways. Days of merry and joy do come today Whines and cries far far away For lovely it is born this way. -Limi Kalapurackal Now to elaborate, being bicultural has certain advantages and disadvantages that come with it. It is quite obvious that bicultural people will have a larger social network and can in fact also sometimes act as the bridge between two cultures. Another advantage of being bicultural is (in most cases) being bilingual (or multilingual). At home we tend to speak the mother tongue of our parents and as we move out we catch up with the language of the outside world. In my case, I am trilingual- I was raised learning 3 languages, English, German and Malayalam. However, the same argument can be used to say that we are doubtful of what our mother tongue is. Is it all three? Well, I don’t speak German as good as someone who is Austrian and my knowledge in Malayalam isn’t as profound as that of my cousins living in India. That leaves me with English, but then again is my English comparable to that of an English or American? It is debatable. This unclear
situation may confuse one and lead them into more and more questions. It could also be that learning multiple languages simultaneously at a young age may result in none of them developing well enough which once again is a concern then. So it really depends on the individual and those who raise him/her, as to how fluent one is in the two (or more) languages. Doing some reading about biculturalism, I realised that one of the major problems that may arise from being bicultural is the loss of identity. You may feel like you are being pulled apart by both cultures and this may even be bad for one’s mental health. When in the need to make decisions, may it be in terms of sports, dressing, relationships or education, the individual may find it difficult to balance both cultures and make a suitable decision. However this is of utmost importance and family and friends play a vital role here. Only with the understanding and freedom of choice that is given to the bicultural individual can he/she make the appropriate decision. This is not given in all cultures and results in the individual feeling lost and a need of assistance. It is a pity to hear stories of youngsters who face psychological problems due the lack of appropriate care given.
great use in the professional world. So to summarise, being bicultural is of great value for oneself and for those around them. However, this value can only be achieved if the right balance is found between the different cultures. Being bicultural is nothing to be disappointed about but rather something to be proud of and to embrace throughout one’s life.
WRITTEN BY:
Limi Kalapurackal As Limi is bicultural, she wanted to share her thoughts about this with you.
However, if dealt well, being bicultural is a precious gem to keep. Research shows that bicultural people when posed with a task, are more creative, flexible and novel. A psychological mechanism known as integrative complexity explains this. Due to them being exposed to multiple cultures, they hold the skills to perceive a task from multiple perspectives. These different perspectives, along with existing ideas, are then linked to form multiple solutions to the same problem. Hence, bicultural people are able to identify and combine multiple perspectives better than those who aren’t bicultural, and this skill is of
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Timothy NoĂŤl Interview with
The freshmen know him from their first lab sessions and master students know him from micro flow and photo chemistry. Last year he had a lot of attention with an artificial leaf which combined light concentrators with photochemistry. Although a lot of the readers might already know something about him, who is the person behind all this work? In this edition of the T-Licht we have an interview with Timothy NoĂŤl. Where did it all start?
grades at school literally sky-rocketed.
I think I was always interested in how stuff worked. As a student, I was not often satisfied with the answers I got from the teachers and I went looking for more details in the libraries and later on the internet. When I was 17, I had a very inspiring teacher in STEM topics. He once took me apart in class and told me I had a lot of talent for science and specifically for chemistry. After that, every time I had to choose topics in my career, I selected chemistry, always remembering those words.
What kind of research are you doing an what are the biggest challenges?
My parents were also very important in my career. My father works in construction and has to work exceptionally hard for his salary. He always told me: try to excel at school because otherwise you have to do what I do and this is tough work, which is not always respected by some people. When I was 15, I started working with him during vacations and was every time knackered at the end of the day. At that point I realized two things: one, I like this labor but to do this my entire life is way too hard to be healthy, and two, I gained so much respect for the hard work my parents did to provide for me and my sister that I did not want to fail. Since that event, I got the focus and perseverance to work as hard as needed to succeed. Thereafter, my
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T-Licht Issue 23.1
My group is interested in the development of new enabling tools which assist chemists in their daily job and allow them to carry out hazardous manipulations without compromising personal and environmental safety. Key in our strategy is the use of continuousflow technology. Continuous-flow reactors have been increasingly used in synthetic organic chemistry to facilitate chemistries which are otherwise difficult to carry out. This includes gas-liquid reactions, photochemical transformations, chemistry utilizing hazardous compounds, extreme reaction conditions and multistep reaction sequences. Underlying all these
advances are chemical engineering principles that enable chemical processes to be carried out under perfectly controlled reaction conditions. Taking advantage of these tools, our ambition is to develop new catalytic strategies for chemical synthesis that engage novel reactivity concepts which facilitate the rapid generation of biologically active molecules. By combining these tools and new reactivity concepts, we strive in the long run to develop an automated and chemo-catalytic equivalent to nature’s biosynthetic machinery that will build essentially any molecule on demand. Our approach is unique in the sense that we position ourselves at the interface of organic synthetic chemistry and chemical engineering. I have an M.Sc. in chemical
engineering and I obtained my Ph.D. in organic synthetic chemistry. My group consists of both synthetic chemists and chemical engineers. Consequently, we are able to rapidly recognize those synthetic problems which would benefit from micro reactor technology and to tackle the problem from a different angle than was done traditionally. Which ambitions do you have? I once said when I was 17 that at the end of my life I would have liked to make a difference in society. Whether it is a small or a big difference, that does not matter but I want to have done something good for the people. This can be a big scientific discovery (e.g. new reactor concept that makes all molecules you want in an automated and sustainable fashion) or having tutored many successful young people in their BSc, MSc, PhD and postdoc. What do you miss the most about Belgium? On a practical level, basically, not so much. In Eindhoven, we are only 20 km from the Dutch-Belgian border so I can have here anything I can get in Belgium as well. More seriously, I miss the excellent Belgian health care system when I am here. I tried once in
the past to get a doctor’s appointment in Eindhoven and after half a day I just gave up and drove back to Belgium to consult a doctor. I can assure you, I am not the only one who thinks like that. On a personal level, I do miss my family during the week. As you might know (or not), I live normally in De Pinte (Belgium) and, during the work week, I stay in Eindhoven separated from my wife and kids. But traffic in Antwerp is just too brutal to drive everyday back and forth. How do you spend your spare time? Do you have any hobbies? When I am at home I try to be there for the family and, since the kids are still very small, it is really fun to hang out with them and see them grow and discover the world. I really like sports a lot (running, cycling, ‌) so I spend quite some time on that as well. I think on average I try to do three to four work-outs per week. It is ideal to recharge the batteries! I love reading comics and books on various topics just before going to bed. Ideal to get tired, to transition from the working day and to catch sleep very fast. Do you have any tips for students? Enjoy your time at TU Eindhoven and work hard for every single course.
Even if a specific course does not seem relevant at this point! I can assure it is relevant and you will acknowledge that when you see the entire overview of your curriculum after you left. The years you spend at our university will define your future substantially, so try to make something of it. If you work hard now, you will get rewarded in your future careers. Basically remember one thing: Your university degree is your ticket for the first class train in life. Do not mess it up!
WRITTEN BY:
Bart van den Bersselaar Thomas Werkhorst Thomas and Bart wanted to give the reader an insight in the life of a teacher/researcher everyone probably knows!
Quick fire questions: Giving education research? Sorry kids, research
or
doing
Which profession would you choose if you weren’t a chemist (nor scientist)? Psychologist Rode duivels (Belgium national soccer team) or Oranje (Dutch soccer team)? Red Devils (no hesitation here). Favorite beer/wine? Beer What is the thing you are the proudest of? My team and the progress they make on a daily basis.
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Nederlands? Je kunt er niets meer mee. Y van de huismeester
Nog een paar jaar, dan is Engels de voertaal op de TU/e. Het Nederlands zal op den duur gaan verdwijnen. Dat laatste was afgelopen zomer al goed merkbaar, tijdens de verbouwing van de Matrix. Hoe belangrijk het is om dezelfde taal te spreken, heb ik toen al ervaren. Na een vertraging waar zelfs de NS jaloers op mag zijn – de werkzaamheden zijn maandenlang uitgesteld – was het eind augustus eindelijk zover: de verbouwing ging van start. Alle technische tekeningen, planningen en schema’s leverden me flink wat stress op, maar na het ontvangen van de complimenten van lyrische Matrixbewoners zou dat leed snel vergeten zijn, hield ik mezelf maar voor. Helaas verdween mijn enthousiasme als sneeuw voor de zomerzon toen ik kennismaakte met de werklui die de verantwoordelijke klus moesten klaren. Bouwvakkers uit Roemenië, Polen, Rusland en Irak hadden zich op de klus gestort. Geen van hen sprak Engels, laat staan Nederlands. Er was ook een bouwvakker uit Nederland, maar die sprak geen Roemeens, Pools, Russisch of Irakees. Wel Nederlands en een klein beetje Engels, maar daar had hij tijdens de uitvoering niet zo gek veel aan, want dat sprak de rest niet. Communiceren deden de vaklieden daarom algeheel niet, tenminste niet in woorden.
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Ik had gehoopt dat bouw, net als muziek en liefde, een universele taal was, maar dat bleek ijdele hoop. Een slagveld is het beste woord om de situatie in de Matrix tijdens de bouw te omschrijven. Op de vloer lag zo mogelijk nóg meer rommel dan in een gemiddeld Kruidvat-filiaal. “Ik heb in mijn thuisland heel wat bombardementen meegemaakt, maar de situatie was er niet zo erg als hier”, vertelde Yassir, de Irakees, me via een tolk. Door de gebrekkige communicatie ging er werkelijk van alles mis. Ondanks dat er glasblazers op onze eigen Ground Zero moesten werken, had niemand gedacht aan aardgas. Ook hadden de vaklui een muurtje in de kelder verwijderd, met daarin de waterleiding. Het gevolg was dat er een hele tijd geen watertoevoer was in de F.O.R.T. Gelukkig drinken de meeste bezoekers van de facultaire ontmoetingsruimte geen water maar bier, dus de schade bleef beperkt. Dat je een Pool niet aan je elektra moet laten knutselen, heb ik ook ondervonden. De Oost-Europese drinkebroeder vond het namelijk
totaal overbodig om de bedrading te coderen. Daardoor waren de plusen minpolen niet meer van elkaar te onderscheiden. Onze Pool was na het aanraken van een verkeerde, ongecodeerde draad trouwens ook niet meer te onderscheiden van zijn collega’s. Op het moment van schrijven, medio september, maakt de beste man het naar omstandigheden goed. Konden we dat laatste ook maar zeggen van zijn werk. Inmiddels is de arbeid achter de rug en kunnen we weer volop gebruikmaken van de Matrix. En hoewel ik van tevoren nog cynisch was over het voornemen van de TU/e om Engels de voertaal te maken, is mijn mening helemaal veranderd. Want dat je met Nederlands niets meer kunt beginnen in een internationale omgeving als de TU/e, is me tijdens de verbouwing van de Matrix wel duidelijk geworden.
Geschreven door:
Michael Scheepers Michael heeft ondervonden hoe lastig het is als mensen niet dezelfde taal spreken.
Wist je dat...
... Irian H. vraagt of de grachten blank stonden?
... Volgens Bart van den B. een echte student het laatste stukje op karakter zuipt?
... Roos B. ze liever breed dan dik heeft?
... Douwe O. appelsap in en uit ademt?
... Rick A. graag met slappe palen speelt?
... Rosa G. hem langer kan maken?
... je wist-je-datjes naar tlicht.st@tue.nl kan sturen of in kan leveren op de Japiekamer?
... Volgens Ilona van R. appels geen beveiliginsgszakje hebben?
... Volgens Dylan R. zijn teen een vingerafdruk heeft?
... Inge M. geen pannenkoek is maar een poffertje?
... Sven R. moet laten weten als Inge M. een nieuwe poes krijgt?
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