Greetings everyone! I am Sarah.
I moved to Cologne a while ago and I am struggling to learn German. I often meet new people at parties and on my way to home from work. The first thing that these people always ask me is where I am coming from (logically, because I can’t speak German).
Then they ask me what I am doing in Germany and what my job is. I always pause and think, because I don’t want to bore them to death with my nerdy field of work and therefore try to find some simple words to explain my job. And then I say something like: Well, I am a research assistant and doing my PhD. Honestly, I normally don’t want to explain in detail, but then they always ask about the field of my research. Therefore, I have to say: in Graphene-based Nanotechnology. The subject of my work itself is enough to freak some people out, but some of them are interested and want to know what exactly I am doing. Apparently, any basic thing about my field of work can seem impressive because there are not much easy-to-understand information on graphene on the internet.
I think I should introduce myself properly first before I continue. I am Sarah Riazimehr. I studied electrical engineering at the polytechnic university of Tehran, Iran. My master degree is in Nanotechnology from KTH University in Stockholm and I am doing my PhD in Graphene-based nanotechnology at the RWTH Aachen. I wanted to start this blog for giving everyone some ideas about what is Graphene, what’s the current state of science and the outlook and about my personal work with Graphene. I should also mention that I am just a PhD student and struggling to understand many things in this field, so any feedback or questions from others is welcome – whether from experts or from other students.
Probably, you wonder what Graphene is? This “wonder material of the 21st century” is just like graphite from carbon. What is graphite? Graphite is just the stuff you find in a tip of any pencil. Graphene is nothing except extremely thin (one atomic) layer of carbon. This super material is the thinnest, lightest, strongest and most conductive material that has been discovered so far. Theoretically, this super material can revolutionize electronics and optoelectronics industry. There are lots of research going on for commercialization of graphene. If projections hold true, Graphene-based devices will be basically used by everyone soon. If you want to know more about this new technology, then you should follow this Graphene blog.
