GBC in South Korea: Research lab

During my stay in Seoul I have been working in the research group from Prof. Ji Young Chang. They are part of the organic nanomaterials synthesis lab at the Seoul National University (SNU) and it was my pleasure working with them. Everyone of them is friendly and very hard-working. I enjoyed spending time with them.

One thing is that in South Korea, the research group do a lot of group activity. For instance, we went hiking on Gwanaksan and we went to Jeju Island together. When a member has his birthday, the other members will buy a cake for him/her and we will eat the cake together (with chopsticks). On a daily basis, we have eaten lunch together. Most of the time we ate in the cafeteria, but in some cases we ordered food to be delivered to our offices. We sometimes even eat dinner together. In this research group there is a pleasant atmosphere.

Jeong Min's birthday.

Young Do's, Tae Jin's and Kyoung Min's birthday.

Hiking with the research group.

Food delivered to the office.

Yoon Bin standing next to our dinner.

Yoon Bin has been my supervisor, who is reliable and responsible. He taught me some useful things in lab and he also taught me some Korean (language). Moreover, I think he knows the Seoul map by heart and even the bus system. When I ask him how I can get to a certain place, he will tell me where it is, how I can get there (via bus or subway) and approximately how many minutes it takes. Many exchange student have the problem that NAVER (similar to google) is completely in Korean, but I did not have this problem. Seriously, who needs NAVER when you can ask Yoon Bin?! :)

At SNU the Master students have to a lot of extra work in the lab. They are responsible to refill chemicals, especially solvent, and to clean the lab as well the offices of the research group. Thus, Kyoung Min and Ji Eun are usually the first ones who arrive in the lab and stay the longest. They are helpful, conscientious and keen to learn.

The group consist of following members: