The Hot Destination for Study Abroad? At IFE it's the lab bench
Stargazing or poring over old bones, science students at IFE last spring applied themselves to a rich array of research projects as interns.
Over a third of the 44 students enrolled in an IFE program joined research laboratories and institutes across IFE's three cities. A rapid tour...
Students who speak Spanish or French, and study physics abroad? Yep, not so rare at IFE. Last spring Physics majors from the University of Illinois, Franklin & Marshall College and Macalester College conducted research on data from CERN's Large Hadron Collider compared to Monte Carlo method simulations (at the University of Oviedo in Asturias), scrutinized nuclear reactions inside stars (at the Curien Institute's Stellar Research Laboratory in Strasbourg), and analyzed data on thermalization in the detectors strung along the pathway of CERN's collider (Laboratory of the Two Infinities, Paris).
Not to be outdone, undergraduate computer scientists (from University of Virginia, Brown University and Macalester) took advantage of IFE programs to conduct research – in the local language of course – on DNA damage using computational biology methods (University of Paris), on formal verification of Linux source code (at INRIA – the French national informatics research foundation), on new methods for developers at an Asturian startup in Gijón specializing in innovative computer tools, and – combining a concentration on Literature – in formal linguistics, developing a multilingual approach to automatic identification of textual registers.
Environmental questions, of course, came under scrutiny by IFE's young scientists last spring. Two Geology/Ecology concentrators (Macalester, Franklin & Marshall) dug into, respectively, the study of pollen to verify models of changes in mixed Cantabrian forests, for the Botanical Gardens in Gijón, and an analysis of how best to use student volunteers in citizens' science research programs, for Paris' Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. The “Museum”, an internationally recognized research institute, includes a Biostatistics section, the ideal place for a student of Biology/Environmental Studies/Data Analytics (from Cal Berkeley) to gain knowledge and learn techniques while contributing to a new method of DNA analysis for “non-model” single-cell organisms (while also preparing for enrollment in the Sorbonne's Master's program in Biostatistics).
In other Life Science research, two neuroscience majors joined research projects on the molecular biology of autism (IFE Strasbourg) and, at the U. of Paris, a study of the placebo effect. A pair of molecular biologists analyzed different aspects of inflammation at an INSERM lab in Paris, and a biochemist at IFE Asturias played a role in a project at the University of Oviedo's Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry to discover how nano-plastics impact neuronal development.
Branching off from the scientific paths often trod at IFE, an Archeology/Anthropology concentrator from Macalester found her place in the National Museum of Natural History's Human Paleontology Laboratory, helping advance knowledge of Paleolithic human/animal interactions by analyzing anthropic traces on animal bone fragments. Animal/animal interactions, on the other hand, were the subject of study of a Scripps College Biology concentrator joining the Social and Cognitive Ethology Laboratory of the University of Strasbourg where she observed and analyzed social influences on decision-making in goat and sheep.
Not included here but well worthy of a future story in this space are the number of social science concentrators who hold intern positions through IFE as associate researchers in public policy, international affairs and other fields.
Many roads to one destination: competence in Spanish or French as well as social and intellectual immersion, by joining a professional research team in a student's own area of study.