Last Monday morning, I arrived in Leuven,
Belgium, for a 10-week research internship. I flew into Brussels airport and
jumped on a train to Leuven. Once I got to imec, I stowed my bags and got to
work! The first day was the longest, but luckily all five of us adjusted
quickly. Most people in Belgium speak English, so communicating and navigating
is not too difficult. Though the language is not a problem, most signs are in
Dutch so I would recommend a translator app.
As for first week survival here, renting a
bike and getting a Belgian SIM card from Orange is a must. Bikes are the
primary method of transport because the city is small and the roads even have
bike signals next to the pedestrian crossing signals. Thankfully, the daylight
hours are between 6AM to 10PM, so biking back to Wisteria (our studio
apartments) is safe.
At imec, my research is in the Life Sciences
Technologies group (LST). I am studying bacterial biofilms using microchips.
Biofilms are known to form on implanted therapeutic devices, creating highly
antibiotic resistant coatings. With my experiments, I aim to characterize the
spatial organization and characteristics of biofilms in hopes of finding
methods to recognize and eradicate biofilms.
I’m happy to report that everyone at imec has
been kind, compassionate, and welcoming. Though we are interns, everyone has
made us feel included and important. The people at imec are personable and
considerate--I was surprised they were concerned with work rules being
“annoying” or protocols being “boring”, when in fact they were the opposite.
This weekend I will be traveling to Madrid,
and last weekend, I went to Brussels with Rayyan and Dante. I’m looking forward
to traveling Europe, but there’s also so much going on in Leuven. Stay tuned!
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| Dinner with IRES Group |
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| Java Cafe at IMEC. An important collaborative place! |
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| Leuven Town Hall. |
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