Bericht 2016 Timo Hausheer

Dear members of the board of the Schweizer Gesellschaft der Freunde des Weizmann Institute of Science

I had the chance to take part at the International Summer Science Institute at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. My time at the Weizmann institute was in different point of views a wonderful and unique experience.

First of all: Science! During my time at the Weizmann Institute I worked in the lab of Dr. Neta Regev-Rudzki about cell to cell communication in malaria. I learnt a lot about malaria and biochemistry in general. My mentor, Mrs. Meta Heidenreich, was very motivated in explaining us things and giving us the opportunity to work practically in the lab. She invested a lot of her time in working with us and everything was perfectly organized and planed. For me, it was also very important to get an insight in the daily work of somebody who is studying biochemistry, because I am probably going to study this subject later on.

Beside science another impressing experience was travelling around in Israel. Israel is a country with very interesting cultural and natural aspects. I have not known much about Israel and the Jewish culture before. The trips gave us the opportunity to visit different places in Israel. The trips were full of surprises and organized perfectly. One of my favorite places was Jerusalem. I am deeply impressed by the long history of this city. Strolling through the colorful markets was an amazing experience. For the first time in my life I saw the desert. Hiking in this landscape was splendid – in spite of the heat. I also will never forget the night we spent outside in the Negev desert.

Finally, meeting the other participants and the staff was a great experience. During my four weeks in Israel I had the opportunity to get touch with people in my age from all over the world. I learnt a lot about the situation of young people in other countries. I made a lot of friends and had a lot of interesting talks. Everybody was very open-minded and there was all the time a very positive atmosphere. I hope I will stay in touch with some of the people from the ISSI also in the future.

Everything in these four weeks was organized perfectly. The whole staff was very engaged in making these four weeks as great as possible. I felt save and knew that if would have a problem they would help me.

After all I can say that the ISSI 2016 was a really intense but also a unique and magnificent experience. I have had a really good time in Israel, which I will never forget!

For all this I would like to thank you very much!

Kindly regards

Timo Hausheer