Research period abroad: our PhD student Beatrice Baschetti talks about her experience in Berlin
12.10.2023
Spending a period abroad has a lot of positive implications for all the students and during the Ph.D. it is an important way to foster one's scientific network and to learn how to work in an international team.
Today we will be finding out more about Beatrice Baschetti’s experience in Germany.
Beatrice has just started her third year of PhD and in February she moved to Berlin for several months, working on a project at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), in the Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratories department, with Dr. Mario D’Amore.
Beatrice, can you tell us a bit more about the project?
"The project was divided into two parts. The first couple of months were spent developing some Python tools for the analysis of hyperspectral data on Mars, which can be of great help for that part of the planetary science community that does not have access to the most-used proprietary softwares for this type of analysis. The second part is oriented towards testing classification algorithms to automatically detect major mineralogies in targeted areas of the Martian surface".
Why is it important to spend a period of study abroad?
"This experience abroad is benefiting me in multiple ways. First of all, it is benefiting me professionally, as I have the opportunity to work and discuss my research and results with many different scientists from the Planetary Laboratories group, who have different backgrounds including physics, geology and astrobiology. Interdisciplinarity is very important, especially in the field of planetary sciences. Moreover, I am glad I can build a network of international scientists which can lead to additional collaborations in the future. Secondly, on a more personal level, Berlin is such a lovely and vibrant city! Having the opportunity to live here is definitely a memorable experience by itself and I am very grateful I’ve been given this opportunity during my PhD years.
Overall, I think that it is particularly important to experience life or work/study abroad at a certain point in your life. It provides personal growth and builds confidence, both personal and professional".
Previous episodes:
- Our Ph.D. student Lorenzo Nava talks of his experience in Australia
- Our Ph.D. student Elena Zanola talks about her experience in Lisbon
