Darmstadt, Tag 9: 14.01.2020

- von Anthony

Am 14 Januar besuchen wir Merck und TU Darmstadt. Wir treffen ander IEP Studenten für Abendessen. This day started pretty early, exceptionally earlier than the others as we had to travel to Merck and arrive for around 8:30 am. We arrived and checked in. Then we had an overall presentation of what Merck was with a man from the research center. We learned how Merck is no longer just a pharmaceutical company, now they focus on science and all different types of expansion for the world and people.

Following this presentation, we got to check out the museum. This was made up of some things like pure opium, some of the first Merck documents, mummies, ram skulls, and other pharmaceutical relics. The history of Merck certainly started with medicine as they have only made expansions within the past three to four years on paper although they have researched liquid crystals over 100 years. Also, they work on OLED lights for display companies.

After the museum, we went into three different plants with some specialists and got to see the pilot plant, production plant and also the gas lab. This was interesting because we got to see the process that engineers go through everyday and want someone in our majors would have to do.

Later in the evening after lunch we proceeded to TU Darmstadt's second campus. We were able to see their research facilities that pertained to our program. There was research overall on how to make production processes more energy efficient. They use these findings so that they can pass it on to other companies so that they are able to be more efficient, while also acting environmentally friendly. We were able to tour the labs and see their different techniques, such as their windows that were able to light the room paired with the sensors on the lights which would dim based on the windows light exposure.

The 14th was a great day for the J-term experience. We saw a great partnered company which many aspire to work for, while also seeing how our partnered universities are working to make the world environmentally safe.