Seven years ago in Spain, I was waiting in one of Barcelona’s central train stations, ready to jump on the same train I had been taking for the past four years of my undergraduate career. My life at the time was pretty vibrant: I’d wake up, go to track-and-field training, attend university lectures, give private science lessons, and then go back to training again.
Those commutes were my only spare time, so it is not surprising that it was during one of those daily rides that I had an epiphany: “I don’t want to take this train every single day anymore,” I thought to myself.
I was nearly at the end of my studies, and I knew I needed a change. But what I didn’t know was that my realization would take me on an adventure around Europe. That seven-year-long journey would lead me to become not only a more complete person but also a better scientist.
As an undergraduate at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, I studied nanotechnology. Combining physics, chemistry, and biology, the major was the perfect fit for my young and curious mind that wasn’t sure which scientific field it wanted to marry yet. I loved my lectures, which provided me with answers for many of my everyday questions. As a keen runner, I better understood what I should eat before competitions. As a not-so-keen cook, I also understood why my granddad was slowly adding oil to smashed garlic to stabilize aioli, a delicious Mediterranean version of mayonnaise.
Unlike the lectures, the research training was not so enjoyable. My classmates and I did not have many opportunities for real hands-on research experiences. With a spirit of trying to figure out whether academic research was the right career path for me, I decided to change gears and experience new forms of education. And as much as it was a scary thought at the time, I was also ready to leave my home country of Spain.
I applied and was accepted to a two-year master’s program in nanomaterials at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The program seemed very appealing to me as it was heavily based in practical research and taught in English, the vehicular language of science. Attending Utrecht was the first time I had really stepped out of my comfort zone. I took a deep dive into a different society and gained an incredible new level of maturity. Academically, I finally experienced the direct application of theoretical concepts, as the taught courses were tightly related to the research done on campus.
Carla Fernandez Rico has conducted research in Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Switzerland. She is seen here examining a sample of fluorescent colloidal particles in her current lab at ETH Zürich.
Carla Fernandez Rico has conducted research in Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Switzerland. She is seen here examining a sample of fluorescent colloidal particles in her current lab at ETH Zürich.
My experience in Utrecht transformed my view of both science and life. Research-wise, such a positive experience wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my excellent master’s project supervisor, Samia Ouhajji. When I felt lost during my project because experiments wouldn’t work, she gave me a great piece of advice: Sometimes you have to accept that you can’t control everything and must let things go. She patiently guided me on the unknowns of scientific research and didn’t judge my English, which was sloppy at the time. I now understand how pivotal it is for young researchers to have good mentors at the early stages of their development, as it shapes their future approach to science.
To complete my master’s degree, Utrecht required me to do a five-month internship at a different university or at a company. It was the perfect opportunity to explore the world a little further and learn about new scientific cultures. After a few Skype calls with Roel Dullens, then a professor at the University of Oxford, I joined his group as an intern. Half a year later, I would return to Oxford as a PhD student, with Roel as my adviser.
Truth be told, deciding to stay in the UK for my PhD wasn’t an easy choice, especially because I was starting to feel a little homesick. Nonetheless, I had established a great relationship with my future supervisor, which I knew would be a critical factor in enjoying my PhD journey. Also, during my internship, I’d learned that I liked the city and my group. So I decided to stay.
The next four years in Oxford were full of ups and downs, as any PhD journey promises to be. In a way, I had arrived almost by chance to one of the top universities in the world, and it took me about six months to leave behind my insecurities about not being good enough. But once I got my balance back—learning to carefully juggle work, sports, and home—I managed to have a great and productive PhD experience, in a rather special place, as Oxford is.
After I successfully obtained my doctorate in physical chemistry, I was again left deciding what to do next. Having decided to stay in science, I felt ready to dive into something more interdisciplinary than my thesis topic while still honoring my nanotechnology roots. I contacted Eric Dufresne, the principal investigator of an amazing materials group at ETH Zürich, and ended up joining his group as a postdoctoral fellow. With this opportunity, I wasn’t held back as much by the lingering feeling that it was time to go home. I guess over the years I have had time to refine what I call my “personal recipe for balance,” and I’m now better able to pursue my curiosity and explore new social and scientific cultures without it costing me too much energy.
Looking back, I’ve realized one of the best things about moving to different countries to do research is that it forces you to take on different lenses through which to view science. In my case, I don’t think I could have developed as much of an interest in its fundamental aspects if I had stayed in Barcelona. In Spain, more scientific funding goes to applied research, which intends to provide immediate solutions to problems. And as much as that type of science is necessary, diving into fundamental problems is intrinsically the other side of the coin, and both are equally needed for sociotechnological progress. In my experience abroad, I have found that funding bodies in the Netherlands, the UK, and Switzerland have been more ready to support both fundamental and applied science.
Rather than saying which places are better for doing research, I will say that moving to different countries has allowed me to become a more complete scientist—one who asks both “What is this useful for?,” as I learned to do in Spain, and “How does this work?,” as I practiced in the UK and the Netherlands. In the same way a microscope characterizes different features depending on the lens being used, I feel that I am now able to appreciate subtleties in my research and come up with problem-solving approaches in ways I simply wasn’t able to before.
Sometime in the future, I hope to go back to Barcelona and bring with me all the knowledge I’ve gathered from around Europe. But for the time being, my adventurous spirit still tells me to make the most of my time in Zürich—and maybe even explore a bit further. Let’s see what the next stop is!
