From Gas Flares to Vineyards: Helix Lab Fellows Explore Careers and Community
Goggles, gloves, hard hats, boiler suits and safety shoes were donned as Helix Lab Fellows made their entry at the Kalundborg Refinery for a site visit in October. The tour of the impressive refinery, with front row views to its high-rise steel tanks and gas flares, was the first of this semester’s site visits. Fellows were introduced to the history, present production, and future plans for the refinery, as well as career opportunities.
The visit was part of the Fellows Program, which has been up and running since September. Every Thursday Fellows have taken part in events and company visits that give them a proper introduction to the city of Kalundborg and the biotech cluster.
The site visits are planned each semester and includes companies like Kalundborg Refinery, Novo Nordisk, Meliora Bio and Novonesis. On top of that, Fellows are treated to some non-academic get-togethers. This autumn the Fellows have been on a city walk through Kalundborg, with a beer tasting at the end, and on a bus trip to Røsnæs, which included a stop at one of the local vineyards.
Rubén Lago Losada, who is a Helix Lab Fellow doing his MSc Thesis Project with Novonesis, finds that the Fellows Program is a much-needed break from his project.
“The diversity of the program is really good, I like the mix between the social activities and visits to sites, because it opens my eyes to the possibilities for a career after my studies. At the same time, I want to have fun. If all the events were focused around the industry and finding a job, it would be a bit one sided, so the balance between events that are relevant for my future career and events that have a social purpose is well planned. It’s also a great way to get a connection to the other Fellows and to do stuff together. We get to know each other better that way,” he says.
Inspirational talks
The Fellows Program is not the only event at Helix Lab this term. The house has already hosted three inspiring Tech Talks, that each drew students, researchers, co-workers, and collaborators to the Helix Lab staircase.
Despite of being scheduled in the autumn break, a fair few listeners joined the Tech Talk on Sludge to Fuel, where Leendert Vergeynst, Associate Professor at Aalborg University, gave an introduction to how wastewater sludge can be useful in biofuel production. And last week Petar Durdevic, who is an Associate Professor at AAU Esbjerg, introduced the audience to how AI can be used to manage and interact with complex environments. The last Tech Talk of the year is on December 10, and the program for next semester’s talks will be announced shortly.