Minervas Daughters stand up for sustainability

Silvia Palm works in the institute’s electron microscopy unit and is an active member of the Green Team. In this interview, she talks about sustainability and why women are still too often faced with the decision between family and career.

Tell us about your path to the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. How did you end up here?

At school, my chemistry teacher sparked my interest in chemistry and in how substances are transformed. Until then, I didn’t even know that there was a Max Planck Institute here, even though I grew up in Mülheim. My original plan was to study something related to environmental protection, but that didn’t really exist at the time. A degree program was being set up in Freiburg, so I thought: I’ll train as a chemical laboratory technician at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung and then move on to Freiburg. That was the theory, but 40 years later, I’m still here (laughs).

Now I’m not visiting you in a laboratory, but in the analytics department. How did that come about?

I developed an allergy to solvents, which meant the end of classical laboratory work for me. I was then offered a position in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), which I accepted right away because I was so enthusiastic about the institute. After five years of NMR and a few years of parental leave, I moved on to X-ray structure analysis and later to scanning electron microscopy. All of these stages were exciting, but electron microscopy is my favorite. I also enjoy photography, so visualization comes very naturally to me. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

What does your everyday work look like, and what do you particularly enjoy about it?

I’m responsible for overview scanning electron microscopy and bulk EDX analyses. Essentially, I show scientists what their samples look like in detail and whether they actually synthesized what they intended to. Without analytics, the work here at the institute would be much more like groping in the dark. I particularly appreciate that I can work independently and that the job never gets boring. We have regular team meetings where we distribute incoming requests. How I analyze a sample and how I can best support the researchers is then up to me. Especially in basic research, which is naturally very broad, there are always new samples coming in, with new questions and approaches.

I see a lot of greenery in your office. Did you bring your passion for environmental protection to the institute?

Yes, absolutely. Here I can combine my two passions, chemistry and nature. We conduct basic research with the aim of making chemistry more sustainable and efficient. However, we can also contribute on a smaller scale. That’s why, in 2019, I founded the KoFo Green Team together with colleagues. Since then, we have further greened the campus and established free bike-sharing options, among other things. In 2020, due to the pandemic, we were sitting together in the cafeteria garden and wondered what kind of tree was blooming there. It turned out to be a very old quince tree. Since then, we have been turning the quinces into KoFo quince jelly and offering it in exchange for donations. In this way, we think about sustainability both globally and locally at the same time.

What has been your most difficult step so far?

The biggest challenge was balancing family and career. I had two sons within a short period of time, and back then many things didn’t exist yet: no flexible working hours, no childcare for children under three, no afternoon care after school. Under these conditions, returning to full-time work was impossible for me. With a part-time contract, I was able to resume my work in analytics, but many women in such situations are faced with the choice of giving up their careers entirely or foregoing children. Things have improved, but women in science are still too often confronted with the decision: career or children.

What advice would you give to young girls who would like to work in a scientific institution?

Just go for it. If the enthusiasm is there, you can achieve a lot. What I really recommend is doing internships and taking advantage of programs like Girls’ Day. I’ve been involved since the very first Girls’ Day in 2005, and you really gain excellent insights. If I can pass on my enthusiasm and, a few years later, a former intern or Girls’ Day participant starts their training here, that’s simply wonderful.