Hello from Maryland! My name is Al, and I’m an upcoming third-year physics student in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. I spent this past winter applying to a long list of physics internships, and I’m grateful that my wide search landed me in the Portugal Internship Program through the David C. Frederick Honors College. Tomorrow evening, I begin the long journey by plane to Lisbon, Portugal, where I will be spending the next two months as an intern at Técnico Lisboa, a STEM-specific branch of the University of Lisbon.

I’m excited to work in a field I love in such a beautiful city. I’ll be 3D modeling and printing an electrochemical cell to test chemical cycling and degradation in a new material for energy storage, then subjecting that cell to X-ray diffraction – mostly new processes to me, all of which I’m very ready to be confused about and learn through trial and error. I’m even more excited to do so in an international setting. Técnico Lisboa brings together scientists from all over the world, and in a highly international field like physics, it will be a rewarding experience to gain perspective from scientists outside the US. I look forward to working with my advisors to problem-solve, experiment, and build in such an environment.

I’m also excited to be challenged in a more personal sense – by bus routes, the Portuguese language, by trip planning and slippery cobblestones. That’s the deeper reason I chose to come to Lisbon: I know it will be deeply rewarding to learn about Portuguese culture immersively, to live and work there long enough to experience Lisbon life well beyond a brief vacation.

I look forward to sharing more with you once I arrive. For now, até logo, and time to finish packing.