May 26, 2010
By Robin Donovan

Alyse Zimmer explored Regensburg during her internship in Germany.  Photo courtesy of Alyse Zimmer.

While her peers sought much-needed sun and relaxation during spring break, Alyse Zimmer was hard at work. As an intern for Ohio University’s SPIRE program, she spent two weeks in Hamburg, Germany writing about nanoscientists at the University of Hamburg in March.

The SPIRE program is an international research and education collaboration among nanoscientists from Ohio University, the University of Hamburg and the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. SPIRE represents a nanoscience version of the national Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program, which promotes international collaboration among scientists, engineers and students in these fields. The “S” in SPIRE stands for spin, an electron behavior studied by nanoscientists.

Zimmer interviewed students and researchers about their work and involvement with SPIRE, including Ohio University physics graduate student Kangkang Wang. Wang is a member NQPI Director Art Smith’s research group and worked with low temperature scanning tunneling microscopes in Germany.

Zimmer also attended the German Physical Society’s spring meeting in Regensburg, which included poster sessions and presentations. In between interviews and notes, she travelled to Munich, Berlin, and visited landmarks including the fairytale-like Neuschwanstein Castle near the Bavarian border.

Along with the mind-opening experience of working abroad, Zimmer found a personal connection to the scientists she interviewed. “The SPIRE Program and what they’re doing with STMs [scanning tunneling microscopes] is world-renowned. In Hamburg, all I kept hearing was they’re the best group of people doing what they’re doing in the world, so to be a part of that was amazing. I felt very honored and special to be able to talk to them,” she said, adding that she’d recommend the internship to students interested in study abroad and communications.

Zimmer completed her undergraduate coursework in March, and recently accepted a job offer from Pep (formerly Promotion Execution Partners), a marketing and brand promotion firm in Cincinnati. To read her work from Hamburg, visit http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/spire/SPIRE/News/News.html.