At GSI and FAIR, people from all over the world work together. Within the framework of the GET_INvolved program, young people get the chance to get to know the research center on site. Ana Isabel Navajas Fernández, a bachelor graduate from Spain, shares how her career mind set shifted during her time working for the HADES experiment.
The interview was conducted by Anke Mautner-Culetto and Adnan Turan, who study “Science – Media – Communication” at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). As part of the course “Media and Public Relations”, in which KIT and GSI/FAIR cooperate, students conducted interviews with young researchers at GSI/FAIR in the winter semester 2022/2023.
How did you become aware of GSI?
I consider myself very lucky. My mobility coordinator back in University of Córdoba, Spain, told me that it was possible for me to do an Erasmus internship and work on my bachelor thesis at the same time, so he showed me a web page for looking for internships in the Erasmus framework. There, I was searching for computer science related areas, and I saw offers in Denmark, Belgium and only one in Germany, which was in Darmstadt. It looked like it was very flexible. That was good for me, because I was looking for an internship, that lasts four months and in which I could dedicate some time to work on my bachelor thesis. As I never heard of GSI before, I looked up their website and saw that the internship at GSI Darmstadt was held by the GET_INvolved program by the GSI International Cooperations Office. I really liked the internationality of the organization and applied for it. Even though at some point I worried I would not get it because it felt too good for me, I luckily got an email back and was highly exited and grateful.
What are your tasks at GSI?
That’s an interesting thing because it’s all about nuclear physics and I’m a computer scientist. I worked at the HADES group and I knew very little about nuclear physics, so my supervisor, Szymon, was very kind for teaching me the basics of it. They basically run an experiment with actual particles colliding and they get experimental data from it. Based on that, they build a model for running simulations and this model has a lot of parameters which values need to be optimized. Here the actual work for me begins since many simulations would need to be run to study the data. I optimize the parameters of the models using algorithms, so when my supervisor tells me for example, we are interested in these five parameters, I would research the best combination of values for those parameters so we can have the most accurate representation of the data. My knowledge as a computer scientist was relevant because I studied Metaheuristics during my bachelor and so I had an idea about which optimization algorithms to apply and why.
What were the challenges of an internship abroad?
Before the internship, I already spent five months abroad as an Erasmus exchange student in Ostrava (Czech Republic), so I couldn’t see my family for some time. Then, I only spent about two weeks in Spain before I went away again. So first, it is the challenge to not be around my family much. Then, arriving at a country where I thought everyone spoke English but then quickly realized at the bakery, that this is not true. I liked that the team was very international because I really love to experience different cultures. That’s also one of the reasons I was really looking forward to doing the internship at GSI.
It also was the first time for me to have no full-time accommodation. I only had accommodation for the first two weeks and that really scared me a bit. But then the staff from International Cooperations Office helped me financing an arranged accommodation. They gave me an opportunity to be in a student dorm, which I was really grateful for.
Then, another challenge of course working in a field, in which I had not much experience. Luckily I met great people and we now and then went for walks that lasted sometimes about four hours. I love talking to people, hearing about their experiences and getting to know them better. The first three weeks were exhausting, but also really exciting and I’m happy overall with all the challenges and overcoming them has, strangely, become my routine.
Can you imagine yourself in the future working in a science field?
To be honest something interesting happened during my GSI internship. I was about to be a computer science engineer with work experience on data analysis thanks to the internship. However, my thesis was more about user experience and user interaction, which I actually ended up liking more and shifted my career mindset. I’ve always had the idea that if computer science doesn’t work, I’ll try psychology. Now I’m studying the Master Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), which is a mix of psychology and computer science. Funny how in life some things eventually come together. At GSI I learned important soft skills such as quickly adapting to new workflows, flexibility and adaptability. This really helped me a lot to realize that I can see myself working in any field. I also got an opportunity to stay in GSI, but at that point I was already looking for a Master program and I’m now at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar as an HCI Master student. But if there will be an opportunity in the future where I can implement user design working for GSI I would strongly think about it.
You are from Spain, lived in Czech Republic, now in Germany have a partner from Portugal and travel a lot: You are kind of an international resident of Europe. Can you tell us something about your future personal plans?
An international resident of Europe? – Oh yes, I definitely am. I take the plane more often than the bus. It’s crazy because in a month I will be going back to Spain for Christmas, then to Portugal, three months after then back to Spain, then back to Germany. If you think about it, we live in a time where everything is very well connected, for better or worse. One thing for sure is that I will not end up living in Spain or Portugal after finishing my studies. I love my family and the cuisine at home, but I think that with my international mindset and all the rich experience that I have gained abroad makes me feel more comfortable being in a different country that the one I was born in, and my family supports me on that. I am currently taking a German course and plan to reach at least a B1 German level. We never know what’s going to happen in the future, with all that’s going on, but I really hope to stay in Germany.
How do you spend your free time?
I love to travel! While I was in Darmstadt at GSI, I went to Amsterdam to meet my Spanish and French friends. The great thing about Erasmus is that you make friends from all over the world and meeting points are no longer squares or bars but rather cities or countries. Now I visit them in different countries.
I also really love just walking around. For example, one of my habits is to take different paths to the same supermarket and observing different elements each time. This also helps me get inspiration to take pictures and videos of the landscape to pair it with music and tell a story, because I am a huge fan of video editing and film-making in general. Another great passion of mine is running. I already run a few half-marathons. Right now, it just snowed here in Weimar and I have never run with so much snow before. I went for an easy 6 km run yesterday and I loved the experience of running in the German woods with snow, it made me very happy. My dream is to run a full marathon with my boyfriend so let’s see how it goes!
All the best for you, Ana! Thank you for the interview!