Ni Hao, Last summer I found myself interning at the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, which comes under the umbrella of Academia Sinica, the national academy of Taiwan. My internship guide, Dr. Jer-Lai Kuo, was visiting IIT Bombay last February, so I mailed him conveying my motivation to work in his group, to which he promptly replied with the details about the international internship program of IAMS. Almost a month after my application, I received the offer to pursue my summer internship at the Molecular and Material Modelling Lab at IAMS.
Working Field and Experience:
It is very common to use tandem mass spectrometry for protein identification, however, due to a large number of isomers of a monosaccharide with a given chemical formula, it is very challenging to determine the structure of a carbohydrate using an analytical method. This project aiming at sequencing the carbohydrates analytically is currently at an early stage. The research group is presently working collaboratively with another experimental research group and for now, they are only focusing on monosaccharides. The idea is to sodiate the monosaccharides so that the oxygen atoms and the sodium cation get oriented according to their mutual interactions. Then the collision-induced dissociation mass spectrometry technique is used and after analysing the fragments produced, it is possible to distinguish the different monosaccharides and their anomers having the same molecular weight. My work there was entirely computational and my job was to produce the database of distinct optimised conformers of several neutral and sodiated anomers. I generated thousands of random structures of those neutral and sodiated anomers and geometrically optimised those along the potential energy surface and then analysed the hydrogen bonding and sodium connection pattern of those group of conformers. During the entire period of Internship, I was thoroughly guided by a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Po-Jen Hsu, and a PhD student, Huu Trong Phan. We used to have a group meeting with Professor Kuo every two weeks and the discussions with him used to immediately set the course of the next work and analysis. All of the group members were very helpful and cooperative and I could run to any of them anytime with my doubts. I also had a chance to have an insightful conversation with Dr. Kuo about research as a career and about further graduate studies.
Other than work:
Taipei is the capital of Taiwan and one of the biggest hubs of East Asia. The weather in Taiwan is tropical; temperature lies between 25-35 degree C in summer with intermittent rains. The island is earthquake-prone and hit by multiple typhoons every year. I myself experienced a mild earthquake in the very first week of my internship! The public transportation is very cheap and convenient there and every part of the city is connected by regular bus services and 5 MRT lines. The bicycle pooling system is great and the government incentivises the riders for using this green mode of transport. Taipei has a disproportionate number of convenience stores than any other city and they say that there is no pocket in the city where there is no convenience store within 300-400 metres! As Taiwan is the centre of the world's semiconductor manufacturing industry, it boasts a large market of a wide range of inexpensive electronic goods and products. The people of the city are habitually very generous and affable.
The added benefit of any university internship is the chance to get to travel to many tourist-destinations on the weekends. As Taiwan is merely a 400 km long and 150 km wide island, it is very easy and convenient to plan 1 or 2-day trips. The terrain of Taiwan is predominantly mountainous and full of tropical vegetation. I travelled to two national parks there - Yongmingshan and Taroko. The tranquil and serenity of nature far from the hustle and bustle of city life was really transcendental for me after a busy week. In addition, the turquoise rivers and sea, the cerulean sky, the steep cliffs, the charming waterfalls, sandy and pebbly beaches and scenic mountain trails of Taiwan kept me enthralled for the entire period I dwelt in the island country.
I also took part in the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional Chinese festival where I participated in a dragon boat racing competition. I rowed in a nearby river with the co-interns and the local students, which was a lot of fun.
Being a foodie and a hardcore non-vegetarian, I believe the most exciting part of my time in Taipei was the chance to savour numerous oriental dishes. Food is really really affordable in Taiwan and hence I never had the propensity to convert all the prices to INR like my friends interning at other countries and I literally fed anything and everything into my stomach.
Every working day, I used to have lunch with my Vietnamese labmates at one of the many restaurants around the campus. Like in most East Asian countries, Taiwanese people always prefer rice and noodles as their meal. Though I had a kitchen at my disposal in the dormitory where I stayed, I never bothered to cook dinner as I kept eating outside on most days!
If I do not mention the lively night markets, I would miss out illustrating the most significant part of my food adventures in Taiwan. The night markets mostly consist of local vendors lining up along a thoroughfare and offering a cornucopia of mouth-watering street foods. Upon numerous visits to several night markets, I managed to have a grand feast of seafood(octopus, squid and oysters). I always found myself in the midst of a delicious meaty treat and never deprived my taste buds of the eclectic palate of culinary delicacies Taiwan has to offer!
All in all, the overall experience I gathered through this internship far exceeded my expectations. I made some truly good friends, got to work with smart and talented researchers and learned a lot from them. I could not have asked for more.