Etienne's interest in culture and history brought him to Barcelona for his bachelor's thesis.

Interview with Etienne Roth

Field of study: BSc Biotechnology
Stay abroad: Bachelor's thesis
Host institution: Instituto Quimico de Sarrià, Universitat Ramon Llull
Semester: Spring 2024

What made you decide, what motivated you to go abroad?
I am highly interested in culture and history and going abroad was always something I wanted to do someday. In the bachelor thesis, you get a unique chance of going abroad for a significant time span without too much of a private hassle because you are supported by both the home and the host institution.

Why did you choose your host institution/country?
Frankly, it was not much of a choice. Apart from Germany and apparently Milano, there wasn’t much of a choice. I did not know anything about Spain or Catalunya really, but as I dug myself into the city and her history a bit, I was sure that there was a lot to see over there. Furthermore, the project proposed to me by Toni, my supervisor at the IQS, appeared to be very interesting to me as it included many things I did not know yet and connected well with topics I had covered during my theoretical semesters in Muttenz. Finally, I was intrigued to try myself at learning a new language and Spanish seemed to be fun to learn.

In summary, it just seemed to the thing to go for. Who dares wins.

What does a typical day at the host institution look like?
You get up around 7 to 8 a.m. and enjoy the sunrise in the city before the sun unleashes its full mediterranean power and take the public transport, which is terribly cheap, to the IQS and arrive there at 9 o’clock. You start working in the lab until around 11 to 12 where people eat breakfast. After that short break, its work time until the lunch break takes place at 2 p.m. which is very late at first, but you get used to it. After lunch you keep on working until around 5 to 6 p.m. depending on your work plan and you head home. Depending on the week and weather, you can also go for (a) beer in a place close to the IQS to have a chat with your work colleagues. You struggle with them speaking Catalan but no need to worry, they will always switch to English (or Spanish if you dare) for you. After a few beers you can go for a great variety of restaurants, or you simply visit one of the many markets where you can buy tons of fruits and vegetables to cook by yourself later. Just ahead of the sunset you can climb on one of the hills close to the city or to the beach to enjoy the last rays of the sun more tamely running over Barcelona and learn some more Spanish just to not use it at the lab because still, everyone speaks Catalan.

Tell us about your research and your research findings during your residency.
For quite some time I was stuck with project step which was crucial for the continuation of the project costing me a lot of nerves because the problems appeared in the field of microbiology where my expertise was, as a process engineer, very limited to say it simple. Luckily, this problem was resolved later with a great help of one of my work colleagues and I could achieve some of the early project targets by expressing six proteins in a small scale to prove their solubility in water and expressing and purifying two of them in a larger scale. This was not at all as far as I wished to get in the project but in the end, there were enough results to write a report on everything and these results are important to the further continuation of the deacetylase project.

What surprised you the most about your stay abroad?
Catalan people take a lot of pride in their history and their language. I did not expect the language to be that important in their everyday life and it was both challenging and interesting to learn about it. By the end of my stay, I think that I understood better why this is the case.

What tip would you like to give to future exchange students.
If I had more time, I would surely have checked out the city earlier for possible places to stay. The city is extremely crowded as soon as the summer kicks in and apartment prices are ridiculously high. The best thing to do really, at least in my opinion, is to search for a room in a flat with other local students. This way you get a better price, and you might actually learn something about the Catalans instead of feeling like a tourist.

Is there anything else you would like to share?
There was no specific experience that I can think of that I want to share. The mere fact that the team at the IQS did their very best to make me feel at home within their ranks made me feel enormously grateful as I expected nothing when going there not knowing their language or any of their customs at all. In the end I left Barcelona with the feeling that I really belong and that was an experience I’ve never made before and will never forget.

Ab ins Ausland?

Unsere Studierenden profitieren von der internationalen Vernetzung der Hochschule für Life Sciences. Ein Auslandsaufenthalt bei unseren Partnerschulen ist bei Bachelor- wie auch Master-Studierenden sehr begehrt. Nicht nur, um den persönlichen Horizont zu erweitern, sondern auch, um neue soziale und kulturelle Kompetenzen zu erwerben.

Im Rahmen unseres Masterprogramms können ausgewählte Studierende durch ein zusätzliches Semester an einer unserer Partnerschulen, zwei Diplome erhalten. Das Double-Degree Programm ist besonders attraktiv für Masterstudierende, die anschliessend eine Promotion anstreben. Weitere Details zum Double-Degree-Programm finden Sie im hier.