Report of my internship

Hey, my name is Marius, I am 21 years old and studying chemistry at the University of Potsdam. Currently I am in my 4th year of bachelor. This summer I had the opportunity to become an intern at the chemical-technological University of Prague. This internship was supplied by IAESTE. In my report I'll give you an look into my work and of course how I spent my time in Prague.

My Internship

First of all, I can highly recommend the IAESTE Prague/ Czech Republic, the internship they supplied was just great. I worked in the analytic/physical chemistry department in university. My working group was really kind, they always tried to speak as much English as possible. They really tried to get to know me, they really tried to get me familiar with their work as well. Their research is about surface-enhanced Raman scattering. This effect of surface enhancement occurs when an analyte bonds to a metal surface on a platinum target. The metal surfaces which are used are copper, silver and gold. The first 4 weeks of my internship were all about the types of preparation and best way of measuring, so an introduction to work. The preparation basically is the electrolysis to obtain a very neat Nano-layer of the metal (silver, gold, copper). Then the analyte bonds to the metal surface. This reaction takes about 12 hours. In the end on the metal surface there is a mono-layer of the chemical compound, which Raman spectrum has a much higher intensity and other wavebands than the spectrum of the pure chemical compound. These differences occur, because in SERS the horizontal vibrations aren’t shown in the spectrum. In the last 4 weeks I had my own project that I had to plan by myself. I chose to compare the enhancements of amino acids on silver and gold surfaces. This project should bring some new knowledge how the absorption of bio-molecules works and which surface is the best for this type of molecules.

In the end of my internship I managed to finish my project just in time.

IAESTE in Czech Republic

The accommodation is the normal student accommodation, but the interns get the reconstructed modern rooms which is pretty nice. The rooms are really good to be honest. These are shared rooms. In one flat there are two rooms for two persons each. So overall a maximum of four persons are living in a flat. I was lucky because my roommates and flat mates were pretty cool, we always cooked, invited each other to go out, etc.

IAESTE Prague planned several events, also called challenges for the trainees. Just before I arrived they had Prague challenge, which basically is like a tour through Prague with special tasks and in the end they are partying somewhere in Prague. After this, every Wednesday they had these so called challenges, like go-carting, bob-sliding, chilling, and of course the summer ending party. This was just amazing. They did not spare any costs to get us a limousine to a club in Prague, so we drove through the whole historic town, on the riverside and the view was just superb. Also IAESTE Prague took part in the international weekends and encouraged us to take part in those like Munich-, Dresden-, and Budapest-weekend. And last but not least they always were open for showing us new places in Prague, go out with the interns, partying with the interns as well. Also some culturist events they informed us about were quite interesting. So I took part in the open castle night, the ice-cream festival, and Prague Pride.

I am really glad, that I chose Prague for my internship during the summer. I got new friends whom I will visit again, and of course I met so many new guys from all over the world, I became friends with so many of them. All in all I just have to say that this summer was by far the best summer in my whole life.