Big Changes but little apprehension

Originally from Kolkata, Aryadeep had the opportunity to study nuclear engineering at one of the graduate schools of IMT. Now a PhD student in this field, he feels he is prepared to tackle the challenges ahead in the field of energy.

My name is Aryadeep Chakraborty. I was born in India, educated in France (Mines-Nantes, 2014), and now I’m a PhD student in Germany.

I first studied Mechanical Engineering in Kolkata, the city where I was born. During my last-year internship, I worked on nuclear detectors. This is when I first heard about Mines Nantes. I decided to specialize in Nuclear Engineering. In India, my own country, things are moving fast and a national nuclear energy plan has recently been set up. I chose to study abroad because France is world renowned as for a leader in nuclear engineering and Mines Nantes offers such a comprehensive program on this topic.

I’ve never been scared

Of course, there was a little bit of apprehension, but I have never been scared. It all looked so exciting! And everything went fine. I got a scholarship from the French government and so many people helped me when I arrived: they helped me to settle, to find a room, to fit into society. I spent two years in France, moving from rainy Normandy to Nantes, then to Paris where I had the opportunity to do my internship at IRSN (Institut de radioprotection et de sureté nucléaire).

“I feel prepared to face the changes ahead in the next few years in the field of energy”*

While studying in France, my favourite classes were Fluid Dynamics and Monte Carlo Simulation. In my view, the main difference in teaching between France and India is that in India, you learn a lot ‘from the books’. In France so many teachers are involved in Industry that teaching is really more real-world oriented. To a great extent, it has allowed me to feel prepared to face the changes underway or ahead in the next few years in the field of energy.