Siao Ting CHONG

In this summer 2014, I managed to accomplish one of my dreams, to travel around Japan while securing an internship. The 70 days NIG internship was an amazing and rewarding experience for me. I got to know about the NIG internship 4 days before the due date of application. It was too late to prepare everything like resume, personal statement and recommendation letters. Fortunately, I was able to get all things done in just a few days and submitted the application on time. I was grateful and excited to have a chance to work in Prof. Fujiyama’s laboratory.

It was not my first time to move across the country alone. I enjoyed to explore new places and to see different faces. The most challenging part for me was the new environment with different languages and customs in Japan. However, I still could live happily without any difficulties because the people were very friendly and helpful. I was never frustrated with the people here but having fun to talk with them. The living in Mishima was relaxing and calm. I loved the research environment in NIG as well. In my laboratory, the lab members were always willing to help me and to take good care of me. A million thanks to Professor Fujiyama and Dr. Chen who had guided me all the way in my research project. I was pleasantly to discuss with them on my research progress because of their great patience in teaching me. Working in lab was perhaps the most enjoyable part of this internship. I was given a plenty of chances to learn the new things, to see the exactly advanced high-throughput sequencers and to learn the theory which were more in depth from what I learned in class. I was given a chance to get the actual hands-on experiences in PacBiosciences Single Molecule Sequencing which was the highlight of my research project. The research skills that I learned included genomics DNA extraction, Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, PacBio Library construction, PacBio sequencer run and genome data analysis. I might not contribute a lot for the laboratory but in overall, it was a great practical experience which was invaluable in my research journey.

Securing internships in NIG was not all about working only, I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy hanging out with other interns. We gathered and visited some popular tourist spots. I was overwhelming by the beautiful scenes in Japan. NIG was organized some events to gather all researchers and students like NIG retreat and summer party. We had opportunities to socialize with each other and expanded our networking. I had a wonderful time in meeting all people from different research background. I also enjoyed the weekly Japanese lesson and laboratory visits in NIG.

I was proud to be one of the NIG interns. I was deeply grateful to NIG/NTU interns committees, Professor Fujiyama, all laboratory staffs in my host laboratory, my Japanese teacher, other interns and all the people in NIG. I became more confident and more prepared in scientific research in future.