Lea has high‑flying dreams
Lea Fennen, from Osnabrück in Germany, has a passion for aircraft. In the future, she would like to work for a large airway company, but for the time being, she is happy to be a master student at Mid Sweden University and FSCN research centre, where she is working on her Master Thesis.
How did you end up in Sundsvall and Mid Sweden University?
I have always enjoyed Sweden and the people here. My family and I have spent many of our holidays in Sweden, but I have never been so far north before. But I like it. I look forward to the winter and the snow. I was studying material science back at my university in Germany and when it was time for my master thesis one of my professors, that knew some researchers here, helped me to get a master student work here.
So, what are you doing in your master work?
I'm participating in a project where we make plastic from cellulose and I try to see if it can have the same properties as plastic. We dissolve the cellulose in chemicals and then we freeze it and defrost it. After that we wash away the chemicals and it becomes like plastic foil, similar to the one that you use in the kitchen. We measure the strength and other properties to see if it can replace different types of plastic packaging. It's very exciting. And it's a good thing to try to get rid of plastic.
What are your thoughts about your future?
Initially, I will be here for six months, and after that I may go back to Germany. But you never know. I do not really have any direct plans, though I've always dreamed of working with finding out new materials to aircraft. I just love aeroplanes, it is something very fascinating about flying high up in the air in a bunch of metal.
Lea works in the research group of Surface and Colloid Engineering together with Christina Dahlström and the other researchers. We wish Lea welcome and hope she will enjoy working with us.