International lab work at Department of Chemistry

I wouldn’t be here unless I loved it”, agree both Athina Sidiropuolou from Greece and Daniel Rico from Spain. They are students at Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, completing their Master’s studies.

Before the University of Helsinki, Athina Sidiropuolou studied chemistry at University of Patras, Greece. Now she is a second-year student in Master’s Degree Programme in Advanced Spectroscopy in Chemistry at the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry.

“I have also worked in institutes in Greece for 10 months, and last July I had a research project in France for a month. Now I’m working on my project for my Master’s thesis,” Athina adds.

She started to consider her future career in high school and made up her mind about chemistry, but wouldn’t have at that point thought that the career of her choice would bring her to Finland.

Also Daniel Rico from Spain works towards his Master’s degree in the same laboratory. He says that he had a mindset of a chemist already in his childhood. “When I was a child, I was always playing with liquids. Mixing Coke with Fanta and such,” he says, and adds that Chemistry was the most interesting subject for him during high school as well.

”I have chosen the University of Helsinki because it is considered one of the leading universities at European level,” Daniel says, and adds that he has also been interested in the culture of Nordic Countries for years, and completing his studies and increasing his knowledge of chemistry in the efficient and international system appealed to him. “The courses offered by the Department of Chemistry match perfectly what I am motivated to learn.”

Now he spends his days at the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, where the average day lasts eight hours, including lectures depending on the period. “You need to like working in the lab and want to do it,” Daniel says.

“I agree, first of all you’ll have to like it,” Athina adds. “Of course you need knowledge of chemistry, too, otherwise the skills you learn pretty much in the lab. You learn the theoretical part in the courses but when you actually practice, it’s never the same.”

“And you need to be very careful when you work with hazardous chemicals, like acids. Some of them can be very dangerous,” says Daniel. “Or they can smell very bad,” Athina adds.

Both Daniel and Athina have enjoyed their studies at the Faculty of Science. “I think everything it is well organized, people are wiling to help you,” Athina says.

“Here you learn different ways of thinking and working. I like it here, so I can’t think of anything bad to say about this university,” Daniel says. “I think that sometimes the distance from the university to your home is not important, though the quality of your studies is. For me, this university is quite far away from home, but for the future, it is better.”