Straight to the lab after school
Rafael (17), a school pupil from Cologne with a passion for chemistry, has completed a three-day laboratory placement at the Leverkusen campus to gain practical experience and prepare for a very special challenge: the final selection round of the International Chemistry Olympiad on 20 May in Kiel.
Back in February, Rafael was a guest at the Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences as part of the regional seminar for the International Chemistry Olympiad. The regional seminar, organised by the North Rhine-Westphalia regional funding body, marked the conclusion of the first two regional rounds of the IChO and offered him and 18 other pupils an intensive day in the laboratory to hone their practical skills. Since then, Rafael has successfully progressed through another round of the competition and is now in the final to secure a place on the German team. If he is successful there, he will be one of the four young people representing Germany in Uzbekistan in July 2026.
Rafael is preparing for the IChO
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Synthesis in the chemistry laboratory: Rafael carrying out practical work on a cobalt amine complex under the fume cupboard (Image: TH Köln - Media Lab)
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Preparing the apparatus: Rafael fills a cold trap with liquid nitrogen to protect the vacuum system. (Image: TH Köln - Media Lab)
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Working in a pure gas atmosphere: Rafael is adjusting a piece of laboratory equipment to carry out a reaction in an oxygen atmosphere. (Image: TH Köln - Media Lab)
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Handling cryogenic media: Rafael is preparing a cryogenic bath using liquid nitrogen. (Image: TH Köln - Media Lab)
In the laboratories of the Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences, Rafael was able to hone his practical skills over the course of three afternoons. This is because, for the first time, the final round of the German selection process will test practical knowledge as well as theory. He was supervised by Moritz Rodert, a PhD student in Prof. Dr Dirk Burdinski’s research group. He worked closely with Tahire Ramushi, a Bachelor’s student, who provided him with further valuable insights into practical laboratory work during his studies.
The three days in the laboratory gave Rafael a comprehensive insight into the many facets of modern chemistry: not only did he carry out complex organic and inorganic syntheses independently, but he also engaged intensively with the inorganic analysis of ions in aqueous solution. Furthermore, he was able to hone his skills in precise analysis by carrying out accurate concentration determinations using volumetric titrations and photometry.
July 2026