When I boarded my flight to Munich this summer, I thought I knew exactly what awaited me: labs buzzing with experiments and discoveries, even a big “Aha!” moment that would shape my research career. After spending over a month home in Thailand, beach hopping and exploring the underwater world with my scuba diving gear, I was ready to slip back into my academic shoes and make the most out of my time in a new country.
What I found was… not quite what I expected.
While I had overestimated how sparkly the research world would be, I didn’t even come close to imagining how many lessons I would learn or how many memories I would make.
Through TUM PREP, Technical University of Munich’s international research exchange program, I joined the Neuroenergetics Lab, where brain scans turn into numbers that help illuminate how the brain consumes glucose. My project involved quantifying task-related changes in radioactive glucose using functional PET (fPET) data. The first conversation with my supervisor clarified that there wouldn’t be fancy data collection during my two-month stay. That part was done years ago. Now we were dealing with chunky fPET data files and coding pipelines for analysis that took hours, if not days, to run. I found myself spending most of my time in the PET/MR scanner room hitting “start” and then… waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more.
Yet even in that quiet, the anticipation kept me going. Every time I hit run on the code blocks, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, counting down the seconds for the little loading symbol to stop spinning. It was a little overbearing. If what I wrote didn’t work, I would have to fix them, run them, and wait more hours to see if they worked this time. But when they did run, and I could move on to the next step, the wait was almost worth it.
Almost.
I learned something important: research isn’t just about immediate results. It’s about patience, persistence, and understanding that every click, every line of code, and every small step contributes to a bigger picture. There will always be obstacles—technical issues, unsolvable timelines, or lack of prior work. Understanding that and coming up with a way to move forward despite them is how you make progress.
Because of the slower pace, I was able to appreciate the little things that made my day special. Lunch breaks became my favorite part. I spent them chatting with my lab mates who came from all over the world, learning how they approached research, life, and their favorite spots around the city.
I also had the chance to step outside my own project and explore other approaches. After attending a neuroimaging conference where my supervisor spoke, I became interested in the Schilling Lab that hosted the event. Their team works with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and aims to improve imaging markers to use alongside anatomical scans, providing a more holistic view of abnormal and healthy cells. They welcomed me to observe their work, which included watching them maneuver a small MRI machine, used primarily for samples in tiny vials and animals like rodents, as well as climbing up the ladder to reach a massive hyperpolarizer. Watching science unfold in a completely different way was energizing and reminded me how vast and creative the field can be.
Of course, not everything went smoothly. Just two days before the program ended, I realized that my data files hadn’t been fully exported. That meant heading back into the scanner room to rescue as much as possible before I left. Stressful? Definitely. But I didn’t want to walk away thinking all that time and effort had gone to waste.
And beyond the science? The people were the highlight. Through the program’s buddy system and with students in the research exchange program, I found friends who turned Munich into home. We spent hours hanging out on campus during the buddies’ exam season (big shout out to them for letting me drag them away from long study sessions!) and exploring Munich as well as nearby cities together. My favorite? Hiking through a forest, up to the top of a mountain to see the Neuschwanstein Castle in business-casual clothes, because we thought it would be a “walk.”
The presence of the people I met during my time in Munich shaped my experience more than they know. The little parting gift they gave me, a spy-themed folder full of encouragement and heartfelt messages, is now on the wall in my room, reminding me of the memorable time we shared.
Looking back, my summer wasn’t about dramatic breakthroughs or glittering lab discoveries. It was about patience, resilience, and community. Sometimes the best data you take home isn’t in your Jupyter Notebook; it’s from the friendships, the unexpected lessons, and the adventures that happen in between.
— Angel Toasakul, Natural Sciences Correspondent
