We are two Master students from Germany, where we study at the University of Bayreuth. Our main subject is material science, especially polymer nanocomposites. When we are back in Germany we plan to initiate our PhD studies, and we believe that the knowledge we will gain at the NCNST will be very useful in our future studies.

Our Professor, Volker Altstaedt, of the polymer department in Bayreuth recommended that we apply to the NCNST, because of their great nanotechnology equipment. Thus, we are really looking forward to using this equipment for our experiments.

Here, at the NCNST we are in Professor Zhong Zhang 's group and we are doing research in epoxy/CNT nanocomposites and epoxy/halloysite nanocomposites. Although we have only been here for a few weeks, we have already settled in very well. Our colleagues are very friendly and helpful and assist us with work and daily matters. They have showed us many places and thanks to them we have already tried several Chinese dishes and seen some interesting sights in Beijing. We like Chinese food and have become quite good at using chopsticks.

Besides our work here, we plan to see a lot of the different places of Beijing and get familiar with the Chinese culture and way of life. Of course, we also want to see the Great wall before going back to Germany. Furthermore, we believe that we will enjoy our remaining time and have a lot of fun with our Chinese and European friends that we have met. We both think that the time until our departure (6 months) will fly by very quickly and that we will have many great things to tell our family and friends back home.