Auslandsaufenthalt in Boston Harvard University Kurzbericht Samuel Gass November 2012 Genève, Suisse Ich rate mal, dass wenn Du diesen Bericht gerade liest, Du entweder an einem Auslandsaufenthalt interessierst bist, und dementsprechend nach coolen Destinationen suchst, oder Du Dein Auslandsaufenthalt hinter Dir hast, und Dich nun von anderen Berichten inspirieren lässt. Wenn das Letztere auf dich zutrifft, muss ich Dich leider enttäuschen. Ansonsten glaube ich, dass ich Dich von Boston überzeugen kann. Und um Dich noch besser in den Bostonian Spirit hinein zu bringen, erlaube ich mir auf English fortzufahren. Das ganze natürlich mit dem charakteristischen Harvard Akzent –lange und breite Vokale und ein sehr sanftes, kaum zu hörendes, ’r’. “Perhaps a few words about me to start off -- just to help you contextualize things a little. My name is Samuel. In Boston, I go by Sam, so much so that they filed the official VISA request for ‘Sam Gass’. You should know that in the US, any name that exceeds one syllable is categorically abbreviated. So Williams will become Bills and Richards Dicks, a considerably worse predicament than mine. When I think about it, I ended up in Boston by chance. A professor at ETH sent me to present my bachelor thesis at conference in Portland, Oregon. There, I met a professor from Harvard Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology. He showed some interest in my work, we got talking, and a few minutes later he offered a master thesis in his lab. It’s funny how a short, seemingly unimportant, conversation can set you on a totally unexpected path. In total, I spent 8 months in his lab. I arrived in Boston with only a fairly small suitcase in hand, convinced I would quickly find an affordable student apartment – two things I warn you not to emulate. Firstly, Boston winters are notoriously cold and therefore any suitcase able to contain adequate winter protection is by definition large and not small. Secondly, and more importantly, student housing in Boston is not that easy to find and by no means affordable if you want to live centrally. It’s nothing to worry about though; just prepare your move in advance. Universities, for instance, frequently have private listings, which are really helpful. And, or course, do not hesitate to ask the Studienstiftung for some financial support; you’ll need it. When you hop on a tram in Boston (or what they call ‘the T’ there), you’ll inevitably be surrounded by a bunch of other young people, books in hand, going from class to class. That’s one of the best things about Boston. To put it in Swiss terms, it’s as if you took all the students from ETH, Uni Zurich, EPFL, Uni Geneve, and Uni St. Gallen combined, stuck them all in the same city, and let life take its own course. Can you imagine the intellectual potential, the curiosity, the exchange of ideas, the myriad of crazy ways of thinking? Well, Boston is very much like that. Strike up a conversation with a random stranger. Chances are, you’ll be amazed at what he or she is discovering through his/her studies. Speaking of amazing students – many people have this weird notion that Harvard students are overwhelmingly smart, that they possess mutant-like supernatural intellectual capabilities. While the campus truly is reminiscent of a Harry Potter novel, and one does indeed expect a student to come flying across the famous yard on a broomstick, the students are quite ordinary. They’re intelligent, hard working, and creative, just like any student you’ll encounter at ETH. The striking difference, however, is that many Harvard students have this strong, almost self-evident, belief that they will achieve great things in their lives, that they, or one of their class-mates, will become the next US president, or Nobel Peace Prize laureate, or both. And professors seem to think the same about their students. As outwardly humble Europeans, we’re inclined to dismiss this as stereotypical American-styled arrogance. However, believing that you can achieve greatness may actually be a contributing factor in finding it. But that’s a whole different topic. In short, you’ll find that no matter how ‘junior’ you are, Professors will take you more seriously at Harvard. That alone, if you don’t make a fool of yourself, opens many opportunities. Finally, if you’re keen on finding a party destination for your study abroad, Boston can definitely do the job. Wherever you have such a high student density, you’re bound to find a vibrant nightlife. But if that’s all you’re out for, I suggest you choose differently. Boston, and Harvard in particular, offer an incredible pool of resources. The connections you make, the lecturers you hear, the books you read, the conferences you attend will all shape your personal and academic development. Personally, I missed out on buying the over-priced crimson sweater (although my wife did buy me some Harvard pajamas off amazon, considerably cheaper I may add). However, I took with me innumerable experiences, which made this exchange one of the best experiences of my studies. In the end, you’ll only get out of it what you invest into it. P.S. Upon reviewing this, I’m slightly concerned that I may not have fulfilled certain requirements for this type of ‘Bericht’. For those of you who are more seriously inclined, I attach an abstract of Master Thesis. The work was presented at several international conferences and resulted in two scientific papers (one published, an other one currently under review). ” Seit meinem Aufenthalt in Boston habe ich mein Masterstudium abgeschlossen und arbeite nun als Ingenieur bei der Firma RUAG Space in Nyon, VD. A Safer Formulation Concept for Flamegenerated Engineered Nanomaterials SAMUEL GASS 1 Particle Technology Laboratory, Institute of Process Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Sonneggstrasse 3, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland 2 Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, 665 Huntington Avenue, 02215 Boston, MA U.S.A ABSTRACT Engineering less toxic nanomaterials that maintain valuable functional properties is crucial to the sustainability of the nanotech industry. We have therefore devised a safer formulation concept for flame-generated nanomaterials based on the encapsulation of potentially toxic nanomaterials by a biologically inert nanothin amorphous SiO2 layer. The core-shell particles maintain specific properties of their core material but exhibit surface properties of their SiO2 shell. The SiO2coating was performed using a modified flame spray pyrolysis (FSP)-based Versatile Engineered Nanomaterial Generation System (VENGES) in which core ENMs are coated in-flight by the swirl injection of hexamethyldisoloxane (HMDSO). First, we demonstrate the versatility of the proposed SiO2-coating process by applying it to several ENMs (CeO2, Fe2O3, ZnO, Ag) marked by their prevalence in consumer products as well as their range in toxicity. We then investigate (1) the effect of the SiO2-coating on core material structure, composition and morphology (XRD, BET, and TEM), (2) the mobility and aggregation of SiO2-coated and uncoated ENMs in DIwater, biological media (DLS) and air (SMPS), and (3) the coating efficiency (XPS, Chemisorption) of the process for each ENM (XPS and Isopropanol Chemisorption). Finally, we provide valuable toxicological evidence for the safety of this novel formulation concept by evaluating the relative toxicity of SiO2-coated vs. uncoated ENMs using state of the art in-vitro and in-vivo models.