During the Corona pandemic, research stays abroad were hardly possible. Now both conferences and the so-called research modules, in which the students of the Elite Graduate Program “Biological Physics” at the University of Bayreuth get the chance to follow their research interests with international partners for up to three months, are once again being carried out successfully.
It is no secret that collaboration is often a key to success in scientific research, and it is also well known that cutting-edge research transcends national borders. However, during the Corona pandemic it became clear that it is not a given that young scientists have the opportunity to establish international contacts on a personal level. Therefore, the members of the Elite Graduate Program “Biological Physics” are more than happy that this is now possible again. Thomas Trepl, who is investigating energy transfer in light-harvesting systems as a PhD student at the University of Bayreuth, is one of the students who now has the chance to gain international research experience himself.
In the summer of 2023, Mr. Trepl participated in a summer school on time-dependent density functional theory at Rutgers University in Newark, USA, and presented his own work as a poster at the subsequent workshop. His work was so convincing that he won one of the two poster prizes and, with it, an invitation to give a talk at the end of the workshop. On that occasion he got into conversations with various conference participants and it turned out that there was a research project underway at the University of California, Merced that could ideally complement his own research.
Therefore, at the beginning of 2024, Mr. Trepl will set off for a research stay at the University of California, Merced, with the support of the Biological Physics Program within the Elite Network of Bavaria. He thus personally experiences the internationality that the Elite Network of Bavaria promises.
Text: Elite Graduate Program "Biological Physics"
