Lucia Švandová after 12 months in Canada

Lucia got her internship in Canada through her supervisor, Dr. Jakub Kelar. From July 2023, she stayed at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, under the supervision of Prof. Gaétan Laroche and Prof. Jacopo Profili. She applied for the Freemovers program, designed for students traveling outside the EU. That is where you can't go via Erasmus.

Why did you go to Canada in the first place? And for the first time on a relatively long internship?

I was looking for an internship focused on applied research because my experience at the time was focused on purely fundamental research. Since I knew I wanted to pursue a PhD after my Master's degree, ideally abroad, it seemed like a good way to try something new. Initially, I hadn't even considered Canada until my supervisor suggested this option. Since I liked the theme of the internship, and it's not that often that you get the opportunity to go to North America, I decided to give it a try. Due to the organization of projects and studies in Canada and the distance from Europe, they preferred a more extended internship of a minimum of 6 months, but ideally 12. In the end, we agreed on the 12

What exactly did you do in Canada?

I worked on a project focused on organic solar cells. It was a collaboration between chemistry and materials engineering institutes and a local company developing organic semiconductors. My part in that project was to incorporate coplanar discharge into the fabrication to solve the problems encountered at the interfacial layer. Because of this, I worked with many different types of materials. I improved significantly with the methods I was already familiar with (SEM, AFM, OES). I had to learn many new techniques, such as FTIR, XPS, TGA, DSC, Kelvin microscopy, spectrofluorometry, powder XRD, etc. What was entirely new for me was just the preparation of chemical solutions and synthesis of precursors, so I was able to do that with a success rate of about 30% :)

In the end, we accomplished quite a lot, and I presented some of the results at the conference in San Francisco. In addition, my work from Canada will be part of my thesis and, if all goes well, at least two publications.

Does science and research in Canada work similarly to ours?

The organization in Canada was completely different from what I knew here. It had much to do with the different organization of studies, as there are no bachelor's theses, and nobody defends Master's theses. The students must undergo shorter internships (3-4 months long). There was a steady flow and exchange of the internees in the group over the year. The internees often make up most of the people in the lab. In addition, we had a maximum of one full-time researcher.
There was a lot of emphasis on independent work and problem-solving amongst ourselves (amongst students). On the other hand, student research was supported financially through various grants/fellowships or frequent student conferences. Student societies also organized these with the support of a few professors, who then judged the presentations and posters with financial rewards.

What did you like about Canada? I'm sure you had a lot of memorable experiences.

It's hard to summarize, but Canada's winter is at the top. We had snow almost nonstop for five months there, which, for me, was incomparable to the local winter. Since I'm fond of winter sports, I took advantage of skiing and skating. I was amazed that their solution to the frozen sidewalks in the parks was to turn them into ice surfaces for outdoor winter fun. Other than that anyway generally hut or hike in the area. Since I made a few friends from among the locals, I also got to experience things like maple syrup boiling. Overall, I was surprised at how pleasant and small-feeling Quebec was.

Did you have a chance to see more of North America?

I saw a few places and national parks in the area, whether weekend getaways with friends, hiking or a few visits to Montreal. Outside of that, though, traveling there wasn't the cheapest, so I spent most of my time in Quebec. On the other hand, there was always something going on in Quebec - festivals, carnivals, competitions - so I had plenty to see.

Having never been to the US before, I used the opportunity after the San Francisco conference to get to know the city and travel to Yosemite with my colleagues. That was a dream come true.

What did your long-term stay bring you? How do you rate your stay?

I definitely rate it positively. Apart from the work side, you also learn a lot on the personal side, and I took quite a lot out of it. Whether it's the number of great people, the greater flexibility to integrate into a different culture and work in a different team, or, for example, the French accent to English :)

How do you feel after your return? And what is waiting for you now?

The biggest shock for me was speaking and listening to Slovak again. I used to answer in English automatically for the first two weeks after I came back. Now, my primary goal is to finish my studies and my diploma. Of course, we are still finishing up some things remotely from Canada, but it is primarily writing for publication.

I knew I would extend my studies since I was away for an entire year. But I don't take that as a negative thing. It is quite the opposite. Before I left, I was trying to complete almost all my courses, so I had a fairly intense first year. Now, I'm enjoying more peace of mind and being able to focus on finishing and looking for my PhD. I want to do a PhD again abroad. Although I see the internship positively, I would like to stay in Europe now.

Thanks for the interview, and good luck!