Undergrad spending six months on a subtropical island doing hardcore chemistry – “I’ll be in my element”

April Wei had just begun the 24-Hour Thode Challenge when she was invited to spend six months on a subtropical island doing research.

Wei was settling in for a marathon study session at Thode Library with her best friend when an email from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) landed in her inbox around 12:30 a.m. The subject line gave nothing away, telling Wei she had a status update. The few seconds it took to log in to her account felt like forever.

The news was what she’d been waiting and hoping for – a spot in OIST’s coveted research internship program. It’s open to university students from around the world. Many apply and few are chosen. The lucky few receive fully funded placements that cover travel, accommodation and training plus a daily stipend to cover living expenses.

It gets even better – students spend their days doing hands-on work with leading researchers from more than 50 countries in state-of-the-art labs. “I’ve done a lot of research projects during my undergrad and I kept coming across papers coming out of OIST,” says Wei, a fourth-year Honours Chemical Biology & Mathematical Science co-op double degree student.

From May to October, Wei will work in the institute’s chemical and bioengineering unit alongside Dr. Fujie Tanaka. “My internship’s going to have a huge focus on asymmetric organocatalysis – basically hardcore organic chemistry and synthesis. I’ll be in my element.”

Wei wanted to do an international placement for her second and final co-op – her first had been with the Wright Lab at McMaster. “I really wanted to get out and see the world. I also wanted to experience how science is being done in ways that are different from how we do it here at Mac and in Canada.” She expects that’s what OIST will deliver as a research-intensive graduate university with international researchers working collaboratively in multidisciplinary units instead of departments.

She found out about the internship program while doing a deep dive on Google. She also applied to DAAD RISE Germany  – the program offers 10 to 12-week summer research internships to undergrads in STEM fields at universities in North America, Ireland and the U.K. “I was accepted into both programs but chose OIST since it’s a longer placement that’s more relevant to my career goals and better aligned with the timeline for my co-op. Plus I’ve never been to Japan before or anywhere in Asia outside of China.”

It took everything in her power not to call her mom and dad right after opening the email but she knew that no parent wants an unexpected call from their child during the dead of the night.

So Wei impatiently waited and called right at the crack of dawn to break the news. “My mom screamed into the phone and blew my ear off. I’m so grateful to have such a supportive family”

She then sent thank-you emails to faculty members Gerry Wright, Alex Adronov and Sharonna Greenberg who’d written reference letters as part of Wei’s 34-page application package. “They didn’t scream but were just as excited as my mom.”

Her parents and younger sister are already making plans to visit near the end of Wei’s placement. Okinawa – the largest of Japan’s subtropical Ryukyu Islands – is located 1,000 km southwest of Japan’s mainland in the East China Sea. It’s closer to Taiwan than Tokyo and known for its white sand beaches, Cerulean waters and coral reef.

The excitement of getting into the research program kept Wei and her friend wide awake through to the end of their 24-Hour Thode Challenge, a rite of passage for Mac undergrads. “We were both freaking out the entire time.”

Wei is counting the days until she starts doing hard core chemistry on the other side of the world. In her spare time, she’ll also be living the Okinawa beach life and arranging music for the 2027 McMaster Science Musical – she conducted this year’s show and will be back with her baton in the new year.

“I’m very excited for the work itself – I love organic chemistry and hope to pursue graduate studies in the field. I’m also looking forward to being part of an international collaboration in science and I’m stoked to immerse myself in the culture and lifestyle of an entirely different country. Really, I’m excited about absolutely everything that comes with this internship.”