Before being ICIQ, I had already known it is an outstanding chemical research institute among the whole Europe. Additionally, I also reviewed some of the research papers from not only Prof. Suero but also other research groups. There are diverse research topics in ICIQ, but the one I have the greatest interests in is asymmetric catalysis. As long as I received the suggestion from my supervisor, I had no hesitate to contact Prof. Suero. After a short interview, Prof. Suero provided me with lots of help during my application.
In the past three months, I met lots of friendly people from ICIQ. Although I know nothing about Spanish, they were willing to communicate in English with me while I was there. All colleagues in the group are nice as well. I could feel to be welcomed at the first day. At each lunch time, everyone in group would have lunch together, and provide comfortable atmosphere.
They also gave advises on exploring this beautiful city and some other tips about living here. We usually gather together after work once a week, and grab a beer and so on.
Eric, who is the PhD student supervising me in the lab, taught me lots of stuffs. Not only the experimental skills, but also his correct and cautious attitude toward the research inspired me a lot. Although I made some silly mistakes at the beginning, he kept being patient and repeated or explained again to me. I really appreciate that and I believe this would be helpful for my academic career.
From the project I got, I learned the skills on using several instruments I did not familiar with before, for instance SFC which is used for separation of enantiomers in asymmetric reactions, and GC-MS which is used for roughly checking if there is the desired product formed.
Prof. Suero is kind and warm. He is open to opinions from his students, also, he doesn’t put much pressure on students. However, all the students are hard-working without any restriction. He is always open toward us if we got any problem. He gave me insightful suggestion while I had some difficulty on my project and gave compliments when I got some progress.
After all, Tarragona is a delicate ancient Roman city which I really enjoy living here. Although it is not a big city, I could also find everything I need here. I enjoy going to the central market to buy the ingredients to cook my lunch and dinner. I love to swim in the beautiful Mediterrian Sea. I would say its hugest advantage would be its great location next to the gorgeous Mediterrian Sea and nice weather with most sunny days. I also went to all ancient Roman remains scattered in this city and learned a lot of its historical stories. If I had the chance, I would still take Erasmus Praktikum and go to ICIQ again. It’s always worthy to broad my horizons by staying abroad for a while, to learn different cultures and meet different people.
Tipps für andere Praktikant:innen
Preperation
Interview, CV, recommendation letter
Visa application
No need
Internship search
Twitter, suggestions from supervisor
Apartment Search
Local websites, help from the other people in the institute
Insurance
DAAD insurance
Telephone/Internet connection
No need if you have EU roaming
Bank/account opening
No need if you have already bank account in EU
Going out options
Bars, night clubs, tapas bar