University of Regensburg

I spent my time in Regensburg working for the Lattice QCD group, a large group of professors, researchers and students, which comprised nearly half of the Theoretical Physics department. Lattice QCD takes advantage of high performance computing to explore the nature of the strong (nuclear) force and the structure of hadrons. I was involved in two projects concerning the improvement of the theory formulations and the algorithms.

As I did my senior thesis at MIT on Lattice QCD, I was familiar with much of the research that took place at Regensburg. Most lattice groups in the US are relatively small, in contrast with the Regensburg group. I was impressed by how well the group worked together; people in all stages of their career in physics benefited from talking to each other and produced top-notch research.

I am extremely grateful for my MISTI Germany experience. I had the chance to explore and fully emerge myself in a new culture and make life long friends. I made close connections at the Lattice QCD group, and my work there made me more confident that this is the field I want to pursue my PhD in. My time in Germany motivated me to try and return there in the future for my post-doctoral research.