Harshda Saxena - Heidelberg University

Hi, everyone! I am Harshda Saxena, a third-year undergraduate pursuing Engineering Physics (with honours) and a minor in Mathematics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. In June-July, I interned under Prof. Matthias Bartelmann in his cosmology group at ITP at the Heidelberg University in Germany as a theoretical physics intern.

Before we start into the process, this is a mental health checkpoint. College is already pretty stressful without the added pressure of internships, and I want to state that the need for corporate internships is different from the reason people do internships in research (in my opinion). Research internships are just there to give you a glimpse of what actually working in a field looks like. If you do want to try to pursue research, one of the best things about it is that THERE IS NO TIME PRESSURE. You have a lifetime of research staring at you, and if you do not feel like your mental health can take it, IT IS COMPLETELY FINE TO TRY IT OUT SOME OTHER TIME. In the same way, I know it’s hard; try not to compare yourself with others during the internship season. Do not underestimate your project, just because you think it is a reading project, a coding one, or whatever. The point is to learn, and you will be doing exactly that. Especially, in theory, it’s tough to show ”results”, which might get you down, so just remember that everyone feels scared and overwhelmed when they start, but you are doing this because you like it!

I already knew for a while that my interest lay in theoretical physics. Through Krittika and other projects, I knew I was interested in astrophysics, but not too much in the coding part (spoiler alert: there is A LOT of coding in pure theoretical astrophysics as well, so be prepared for that). I loved doing the theory part in the other courses/projects, so I was on the lookout for a theoretical intern. There are some general programmes that most people in research apply to, which I also applied to. Personally, I didn’t app a lot, but whenever I did, either I was seen-zoned, or the reply was not positive. If you want to app, be concise, and put in your research experience and what work you are looking for. It always helps to know what work the group/professor has been doing so that they know you have done some research (ahem) on your own.

Thus, I mostly applied to programs. There are some which might be interesting: DAAD-WISE, MITACS, VSRP, PRISM, SURF, LIGO-SURF, and apart from this, there are some by individual universities as well such as ETH, IST etc. For some of them, especially DAAD and SURF, you need a professor beforehand, and this is where it might get complicated. Unless you want to go through the turmoil of apping, do tell your PT Cell coordinator of the field you are interested in and request them to keep those professors in mind. This is where I got lucky, and Priyam found a professor who was working on exactly what I wanted to do, theoretical cosmology.

After you have applied and the interview process starts (or in the case of apping when you meet them for the first time), it’s always nice to refresh your memory on what you have done and your research experience till now. If you have prior experience in their field, read up any report/basics that you have done so that they have an idea of your background. It always helps, as before, to stalk the group beforehand, and know what kind of work they are doing, and which type of work you would be most interested in, and tell that to the professor. After that comes the funding crisis, for which the programmes are usually convenient to apply to. DAAD has like a billion things it needs you and your professor to fill, so it is imperative to tell your professor this beforehand so that they know that these things are time-sensitive. It also needs you to have a research plan drafted out, which was kind of scary at first, but just ask your professor for a brief description of their work, it should be enough. Usually, alternative funding is hard to get, so try your best in the application.

Now, finally, to my experience. After the interview and the DAAD process, the actual duration of the internship was a little shorter than previously decided, due to my semester exchange at ETH Zurich, which ended in June. However, it was fine since I was taking a Theoretical Cosmology course at ETH, which covered most of the prereqs needed for the work under the group. The group that I have been working under has developed a new way to explain cosmic structure formation, using a formalism called kinetic field theory (it’s just big words for a semi-classical field theory to explain how structures like galaxies and clusters and stuff formed in the late universe). I am specifically working on how modified gravity theories can impact structure formation in their formalism, currently looking into screening methods and so on. It’s super cool and fun to do, so I think I will be working with the professor after the official end, and he’s also cool with it. It’s also super fun to work in a research group, especially in a new place, so you automatically have besties, who can help you in your work, and hang out with you post work.

To sum up, I would again like to emphasize how the main thing to keep in mind is that the point of an internship is to get a glimpse of how research works and whether that is something you would be interested in. It is a very stressful process, and your seniors are there to help you, and it is absolutely okay if you do not get something that you want. If the programmes and apping doesn’t work, ask a professor at IITB for a small research problem to work on, because the locations don’t matter, the experience does. All the best, and stay healthy!