Nicolaj Kofod, Florida State University, 2019-2020

Nicolaj Kofod went to Florida State University (FSU) in AY 2019/2020 on a Fulbright grant, he is now a Ph.D. Fellow at Department of Chemistry at Copenhagen University. This is his experience.

My work in Copenhagen focuses on understanding the chemistry and photophysics of the lanthanides. From November 2019 to March 2020 I visited Prof. Thomas Albrecht-Schönzart at FSU in the US. It is one of the few institutions in the world which has access to the actinides – the lanthanides radioactive cousins. The aim of the project was to study the comparisons and contrasts between the chemical bonding of the two series, as this is still largely an unknown territory.

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Fluorescent crystals synthesized in the Florida State University Lab

The visit was unfortunately cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The visit was supposed to go until May, but I returned to Copenhagen in mid-March. A return to FSU is currently being planned for when the world situation stabilizes. Although I didn’t get all the results I had hoped, I was able to use the data I got to write my Master’s Thesis over the summer.

The preliminary results show great promise and will form the basis for my future work. Socially, I made some great connections with the people in the group and a lot of further collaborations is already being planned.

I am very grateful for the help Fulbright provided, both in the Visa application process, the financial support, as well as great advice and support during the chaotic times of the early days of the pandemic.

If I could do anything different, I would try to focus more on the administrative details of the host university. The rules for visiting researchers at FSU had recently changed and I spend a lot of time trying to gain access to the lab. Much of that could potentially have been resolved before starting the visit.

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"I am very grateful for the help Fulbright provided, both in the Visa application process, the financial support, as well as great advice and support during the chaotic times of the early days of the pandemic."

- Nicolaj Kofod, Fulbrighter 2019-2020

Despite the circumstances I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at FSU. I made great connections both on a personal and academic level. I learned valuable new techniques and acquired great tools for my research. A return to FSU is expected, either as part of my further work as a Ph.D. student or as a postdoctoral researcher.