ICIQ always gets younger on July even as we know deep inside we’re getting older when we come across any of the high school students doing a summer placement at ICIQ. They come in different ways and with different purposes:

• Andrea Ruiz and Sergi Rafel are in the Galán-Mascarós lab doing research as part of the Joves i Ciència programme
• Thanks to the Societat Catalana de Química, José Andrés Ballester is spending time with ICIQ’s computational groups
• About 15 high-school students will come in and out to get their research project supervised by Dr. Laia Pellejà, ICIQ’s science outreach person

“Doing research in one of these labs is a great experience. My parents would prefer I become an engineer but what I like is chemistry” says Andrea.

“We have seen what’s electrolysis, we have discovered the organic solar cells… My friends don’t understand that I want to be here during my holidays” adds Sergi.

Whatever their reasons for coming here, we are glad they are here! Seeing the youths around and feeling their excitement about chemistry makes us — the day-to-day ICIQ inhabitants — believe that the future is in great hands.