KAREL HARTLIEB

Karel Hartlieb

Fulbright BHP Billiton Scholar (2007-2008)

Scholar story

The main reasons why I applied for a Fulbright scholarship were to experience what it is like to live in another country, enhance my understanding of the USA, and to work with different research groups. Although I only spent 8 months in the US it was certainly enough time to achieve those goals. The majority of my time was spent in the small town of Potsdam, located in St Lawrence County in northern New York where I undertook research at Clarkson University in the Process Intensification and Clean Technology group. The first thing I discovered about my research group was that the majority of them were students from India and they were all very helpful getting me settled in. Over the time I spent in Potsdam not only did I learn about life in the US but also a bit about Indian culture. Whenever someone went back to India for a holiday they would always bring back a lot of Indian food to try and when Australia played India in the cricket there was always some lively discussion.

One of my first tasks at Clarkson was to clean up a new lab that had been given to my advisor and to order all the equipment I would need for my research so the first 1-2 months was taken up ringing up various companies for quotes which was something I wasn’t used to and certainly a useful experience on a profession level. Unfortunately for my research I experienced some lengthy delays and was only able to start getting usable results halfway through my stay. This meant spending most of my time in the lab (including far too many weekends) and carefully mapping out the work that had to be done. Fortunately it appears as though we will be able to publish some of this work after a bit more analysis in Australia.

Apart from carrying out my own research I was able to learn about different aspects of chemical engineering, particularly reactor design. This has allowed me to suggest design modifications to equipment that is used in Australia and to build equipment for other experiments. My stay at Clarkson has also strengthened the collaboration between my advisors in the US and Australia and new equipment has been ordered for my Australian research group from my US advisor. My familiarity with this equipment will allow me to train other users when I arrive back in Australia.

I attended the Materials Research Society conference in San Francisco and had a great time at the conference, met a lot of other students from around the world and saw a lot of interesting presentations. After that conference there was about two weeks until the next one in New Orleans so I was able to stay a few more days in San Francisco and be a tourist for a while, flew into Las Vegas for a few days before spending the next week in New Orleans. The American Chemical Society conference was the largest conference I had been to with ~20000 people attending.

When I applied for a Fulbright I didn’t fully realize that it is much more than a scholarship to attend a US university. Overall my time in the US was enjoyable, challenging and unforgettable. I have met and worked with many different people, been to different places, and experienced events, both on a professional and personal level, which I would not have experienced in Australia. Along the way I have learnt more about my research and more about myself, and this experience has given me plenty of ideas for the future.