Graduate Student Spotlight: Nick Maciulis
The Caulton group at Indiana University of Bloomington began an international collaboration with Sven Schneider’s group at Georg-August University in Goettingen, Germany on cleavage and functionalization of the molecule N2. Goettingen is known as “Stadt, die Wissen schafft” or the “city that creates knowledge,” and many famous chemists studied or taught at the institution. The cemetery contains the second largest collection of Nobel Laureates including Walther Nernst, Max Planck, Max von Laue, and Max Born. The city is composed of a mix of modern buildings and the old style houses called “Fachwerkhaus” and contains many historical sites to visit.
The Siedle Fellowship allowed me to work in Schneider’s lab and live in Germany for 3 months. During this time, I explored much of Goettingen, enjoying the bakeries, coffee shops, and visiting popular pubs and breweries. Goettingen is located roughly in the center of Germany, making it ideal for traveling by train to all ends of the country. I used this advantage to go site-seeing in Berlin on a weekend. The time spent in the lab resulted in the isolation of a new tungsten dinitrogen dimer that is capable of undergoing reduction and heating to split dinitrogen; this is culminating into a manuscript.
I was fortunate to witness the unique graduation ceremony for PhD students from Georg-August University. The research advisor has to pull the newly-minted PhD student through the city of Goettingen on a decorated cart to a fountain containing a statue of a maiden holding a goose (known as the Gaenseliesel). The student climbs up to the statue to kiss the maiden and leave a bouquet of flowers. There is mass celebration around the fountain with townsfolk and tourists!
These experiences helped build connections with people and possible future collaborators. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to meet wonderful people, explore the German culture and approach to research, and live in Europe.