「海外の研究室ではどのような研究が行われているのだろう？」「英語で研究発表をするのはどんな経験だろう？」――。小田川さんはドイツ・テュービンゲン大学に滞在し、現地研究者との共同研究や英語でのセミナー発表に挑戦しました。本レポートでは、最先端研究に触れながら国際的な研究者ネットワークを広げた貴重な経験について紹介します。

I’m Odagawa, a second-year master’s student in the Ohmori group at IMS (Okazaki, Japan). My research focuses on neutral-atom quantum computing systems. This spring, I spent four weeks at the University of Tübingen in Germany, visiting Professor Christian Gross’s research group, thanks to ASPIRE program.

It was my first time experiencing research abroad, and it gave me the chance to work in a completely different environment and collaborate with people from another country.

During my stay, I mainly joined the potassium team. As a short-term project, I worked on building and characterizing an external-cavity diode laser. At the same time, I took part in regular experiments and group meetings, where I had many discussions about technical challenges and experimental limitations. Those conversations were especially valuable—they gave me new perspectives and made me rethink parts of my own research.

What I really enjoyed about the lab was the open and welcoming atmosphere. It was easy to talk to people across different teams and share ideas without hesitation. Outside the lab, I also spent a lot of time with the group, going out for drinks or having dinner together. Along with the beautiful town of Tübingen, this made the whole experience special.

Professor Christian Gross also left a strong impression on me. He was always enthusiastic about discussing research—not only during meetings, but even over casual conversations at lunch. That energy made the group feel very lively and engaging. During my stay, I mentioned that I was interested in visiting labs at TU Darmstadt, and he encouraged me to go. Thanks to that, I visited two labs there and even gave a 45-minute seminar. Since I don’t often have the chance to give a full-length talk (even in japanese), doing it in English was a great experience for me.

Life in Germany was very comfortable overall. Tübingen is a small city, and most places are easy to reach by bus—although I quickly noticed that the buses don’t always arrive exactly on time.
I also enjoyed cooking for myself, since basic ingredients like vegetables and pasta were easy to find and reasonably priced. And I have to say, the bread in Germany was nice — I ended up eating it almost every day.

This was also my first time traveling to Europe, so it was a meaningful experience beyond research. Living in a different culture for four weeks gave me new perspectives and a lot of memorable moments. Since this happened at the end of my first year of my master’s program, it also felt like a perfect way to wrap up the year.

Overall, this experience helped me become more confident in discussing and presenting my research in an international setting, and I’m excited to build on this in the future.