Thesis defense via videoconference with China
Congratulations to Joakim Berg Villumsen who recently defended his thesis via videoconference with his supervisor in China. Thereby Joakim becomes one of the first graduates to complete the Sino-Danish Center's (SDC ) master program, Nano Science & Technology.
From Denmark to China and Back
In 2013, Joakim Berg Villumsen decided to embark on an adventure - an adventure that started in China and ended in Denmark.
Joakim was one of the first who started on Sino-Danish Center's graduate program, Nano Science & Technology, in Beijing. He investigated the possibilities while writing his bachelor, but was still a little unsure whether he would jump into it.
"After a little talk with different people, I decided to break outside my comfort zone, while I was still young. The international profile , knowledge of the chinese culture and the double degree that follows taking this program, would also benefit me in my future job search."
Two years later Joakim is standing in Per Hedegård's (head of studies) office, early in the morning defending his thesis.
Early Thesis Defense
Because of the time difference between Denmark and China, Joakim's defense via videoconference, was scheduled to start at eight o'clock in the morning. Since joakim didn't had anything to eat before the video conference, his first immediate comment after the defense was:
"Right now I just want to go and get breakfast"
After a succesful defense, which lasted an hour, it was also deserved with a lunch break.
For the last five months Joakim worked on, and examined the graph oxids antibacterial properties based on a handful of articles. The bacterium, Clostridium difficile, is causing problems in the hospital environment in the Western world at the moment, and it is this bacterium Joakim, via the graph oxide, will try to limit.
"I started to produce and explore the graph oxide, that way i knew what i was dealing with. Then I mixed it with various bacteria to see if their growth was limited. The results were not absolutely conclusive, so a short and simple summary is not that easy. But it seemed to succeed to some extent at least, based on a relatively limited set of data. "
Sino-Danish Center
The overall aim of SDC is to promote and strengthen cooperation between Danish and Chinese learning environments and increase the mobility of students and researchers between Denmark and China. SDC currently provides 7 graduate programs, one of them beeing Nanoscience & Technology, which started it's journey in 2013 with Joakim aboard.
Joakim is happy that SDC has made it possible for him to take his Master in China, and he also encourages others to do it.
"The process has been exciting and I'm really glad I pulled myself together in 2013 and focused on studying abroad. It has made me face a lot of challenges and opportunities, both personally and professionally, which has strengthened my character. I am very glad that I gave the whole China adventure a chance."