Two Undergraduates Spend Their Summer Doing Research in Germany
Aneliese Ammirata and Charlene Guo, both Honors College students at Rutgers-New Brunswick, take part in a science- and engineering-focused internship program
Two students attending Rutgers University-New Brunswick headed to Deutschland over the summer to conduct undergraduate research as part of a German-funded internship opportunity.
Aneliese Ammirata and Charlene Guo participated in the Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) Germany program overseen by the German Academic Exchange Service (or DAAD, as it is known by its German abbreviation, short for Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst).
Through the RISE Germany program, undergraduate students from North American, British and Irish universities complete a summer research internship for a minimum of 10 weeks at a German university or research institution. The scholarship includes a monthly stipend for three months to help cover living expenses, an international travel subsidy and health insurance.
Guo learned about the program through the Office of Distinguished Fellowships, or ODF, at Rutgers-New Brunswick.
Ammirata said she was searching for summer internships online, adding that she found “some good information about it through the ODF.”
An Rutgers Honors College student double majoring in biological sciences as well as history and political science, Ammirata was placed at Universität Bonn (the University of Bonn) in western Germany, specifically within the Institut für Mikrobiologie und Biotechnologie (Institute for Microbiology and Biotechnology).
Her objective was to gain insight into how the genome of a single-celled organism, Haloferax volcanii, is organized.
“Using a reaction protocol called click chemistry, we are able to fluorescently label newly replicated DNA in cells and then ... image where it is localized by utilizing different microscopes and imaging techniques,” said Ammirata, 19, of West Islip, N.Y.
As a research intern, she inoculated and maintained cell cultures, prepared slides for imaging, analyzed them and presented her findings.
“The interns are able to work with a significant level of autonomy in the lab and do most things either independently or alongside their Ph.D. mentor,” said Ammirata, adding that she developed technical skills such as operating different microscopes and software. “I also learned to become more organized, taking detailed and clear notes and communicating well with my supervisor and peers.”
She said her research in Germany “connected nicely” with coursework and research she did at Rutgers New-Brunswick, where she has taken several genetics courses and is working on a genetics research project at the Rongo Lab at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology.
She said the most challenging matter during her time in Germany was facing “so many unknowns all at once.”
“The first week I was very overwhelmed at being in a new lab, on a new project, as well as in a new apartment, in an unfamiliar country,” said Ammirata, noting that members of the lab staff proved welcoming and helped her to adjust to her new environment. “The best thing for me was to appreciate every moment of the change and use it as an opportunity to grow and meet so many new people.”
Now a junior, Ammirata applied for the RISE program because it combines two of her passions: science and travel.
“The fact that it was in Germany only made it more appealing,” said Ammirata, adding that she called her mom “immediately after finding out and almost screaming with excitement.”
She said two cultural experiences stand out in her mind, the first being the World Cup.
“The narrow streets were lined with people of all ages and all backgrounds wearing the same jerseys, drinking beer and rooting for the same team,” Ammirata said. “I remember watching fireworks go off across the Rhine whenever Germany scored a goal.”
The second was the ease at which one can travel to different cities and countries.
“I was able to coordinate trips with the other interns and travel on weekends and holidays,” said Ammirata, adding that she visited nine countries.
“The moments that best captured the value of the program, although bittersweet, were the goodbyes,” she said. “Despite all the hugs and a few tears, it made me realize just how special the experience had been. Not only had I grown as a student and researcher, but I grew as a person.”
Guo, an Honors College senior and environmental science major attending the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, conducts research on environmental contamination with heavy metals. Taking her research overseas to an unfamiliar setting was an opportunity she couldn’t resist.
“This is a complex issue that goes beyond borders and requires large-scale collaboration, so I wanted to establish international connections, learn to adapt to research in completely new settings and explore heavy metal contamination from mining, which is a source I hadn't studied before in my research,” said Guo, 21, of Westbury, N.Y. “Mining leaves behind waste material that can leach metals into soil and water long after they're extracted and is a major source of heavy metal contamination worldwide.”
At Rutgers, Guo researches human exposure to lead contamination from sources such as tap water and spices. In Germany, she shifted her focus to sediments and expanded her work to a broader range of heavy metals and metalloids such as arsenic, cadmium and iron.
Guo, who spent her weekends abroad traveling to the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Hungary and various German cities, said the RISE Germany program proved “a great way to bridge my environmentally focused coursework to my research interests.”
As a research intern at Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (TUBAF for short or translated as the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology) in Saxony, Germany, Guo used complexing agents – chemical compounds that bond to metal ions to form stable structures – to remediate mining-contaminated sediment for reuse in the construction and agriculture industries.
“Because the metals are locked away in these structures, they can essentially be ‘washed away’ from the sediment, which could potentially allow it to be safely repurposed instead of being sent to waste,” she said.
Outside of her research, Guo attended classes at the technical university and went on field studies and field trips, including going underground into the school's research mine and “analyzing groundwater flow through tracer testing.”
Challenges such as laboratory access constraints and redoing or adjusting her experiments because of “unexpected results” added to Guo’s learning experience.
“I had to stay flexible yet prioritize steps that would keep the integrity of my data while balancing that with the time constraints of the internship,” Guo said. “Troubleshooting is honestly just as much a part of research as the experiment itself, and being able to adapt quickly ended up being one of the more useful skills I walked away with.”
After graduating from Rutgers, Guo plans to pursue a doctoral degree and work as a research scientist in environmental contamination.
A moment that captured the value of participating in the RISE Germany program “was realizing how much mining is a part of daily life in Freiberg,” Guo said.
“People still greet each other with ‘Glück auf,’ the old miners' greeting, and there's an annual folk festival called Bergstadtfest built around mining heritage, with the hammer-and-pick symbol everywhere you look,” she said. “Seeing my research as something embedded so deeply in a real place and a real community is the reason I want to keep doing this work.”
A DAAD representative will host an information session about the RISE Germany program for Rutgers students via Zoom from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 20. Registration is required.
