Cassandra Repole @ Climate Lab Spring 25

Background

My background is in biology. I am an integrative biology major so I study ecology, evolution, physiology, and genetics. I am very interested in learning about different environments and ways people can work to protect flora and fauna from the effects of climate change and other harm caused by humans such as pollution. I chose this internship because it was the option that most aligned with my goals, mainly to contribute to climate neutrality goals. I thought it would be interesting to experience a more business role because I mainly focus on academia. 

Internship

My internship was with the company Climate Lab. They aim to foster collaboration and innovation to achieve climate neutrality and a circular economy through their community partners, programs, and collaborative space. 

My main responsibilities were just to complete any tasks that team members needed help on. This mostly consisted of completing literature reviews on EU regulations and companies associated with circularity. The two main projects I worked on were literature reviews for DDP (digital project passports) and WEEE (waste from electrical and electronic equipment). Finally, I worked on Wien Energie’s Innovation Challenge by compiling a list of possible candidate startup companies that are working with digital twins. 

Takeaways

My first main takeaway from the internship semester is that even if you think you are an expert in a field you can always learn more. My other takeaway is that you should explore your interests because you never know where it may take you and what experiences you may gain from it. 

Advice for future Vienna Plus students

A future student taking on this role will need flexibility because tasks are not assigned ahead of time and they will randomly be given so you need to be able to take something on when it is given, but also be prepared for downtime with no tasks. They also need good communication skills because working as a team is very important and you have to be able to get along with various team members who are all unique and different. Overall, an openness to learn is also important because the projects are very different from one another and all require some degree of learning to become familiar with the different topics. My advice for future Vienna Plus students is to make the most out of their internship. Ask questions, request more tasks, ask to join a project if you want, network with other employees, and attend events. 

Luis Eguiguren @ VetMedUni Wien Fall 22

Background

My background dabbles foremost in biology, although I’ve never learned about reproductive biology or mammalian biology in such depth before this internship. I thought it would be a great way to learn more about the field, and especially get up close and personal with the subjects of many pharmaceutical experiments and tests to understand how we actually gain information from working with them. It is quite eye opening how much we can learn despite humans and mice being so different in size and shape.

Internship

My internship took place at the Veterinary Medicine University of Vienna, Austria. More specifically, I joined Priv. Doz. Dr. Kerstin E. Auer, (PhD), as well as graduate student Sophia Tan in researching the reproductive biology of lab mice, and how best to conduct in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfers.

Takeaways

I believe I learned how to communicate and speak up for what I thought better in the internship, and to actively listen and understand as best as I could despite being quite new to the field. Truly, this internship’s challenges strengthened me on the other side and prepared me for other scientific work down the line. My main takeaway? To be a scientist, or conduct any sort of meaningful work, you have to care about your team, and be kind.