We are committed

Dr. Stephan Röthele is one of the founders of Sympatec GmbH, one of the first spin-outs of TU Clausthal, which has now grown to almost 200 employees after more than 35 years. After a five-year start-up phase, the company has also been economically successful for 30 years and is an important employer in the structurally weak region of the Harz Mountains. After consuming the loss carried forward from the early years and repaying the founding loans, part of the profit is gratefully returned to the region and the Clausthal University of Technology for common sense projects.

The common sense concept follows the motto "secure foundations - promote talents". The company headquarters was built 15 years ago on the former academic sports field of the Clausthal University of Technology and has been steadily expanded ever since, following the continuous growth. The mining monuments found here around the famous Caroline and Dorothee pits offer obvious foundations that were and are to be secured. It is the place where in 1834 the wire rope for the former deep pit Caroline, which by now embodied world renown, was invented by Oberbergrat Albrecht. Since 2004, two historic pitstones have been recovered and reinstalled, the historic powder house has been preserved, and a visitor mine has been established as a link between the reopened Caroline ventilation shaft and the 16th century Dorotheer Rösche. The company has been supporting the Clausthal Market Church of the Holy Spirit, which is connected to this and also a result of mining, with an endowment for 10 years and has made a significant contribution to the comprehensive renovation, including the installation of a high-quality Goll organ, in this largest wooden church in Europe, one of the most important architectural monuments of the Baroque period in northern Germany. For the past 7 years, the church has also been the main venue of the HarzClassixFestival, which sponsors and companies initiated and have been organizing ever since. In addition to the Pulverhaus and the TU auditorium, concerts by internationally renowned artists are held here.

The cultivation of contacts with the TU Clausthal has been extended to research and development projects over time and is also characterized by a strategic exchange for the purpose of finding young talent and promoting students. With the Germany Scholarships, it is now also possible to reach talented people with whom it has not yet been possible to establish professional contacts as students (be it in the context of study, diploma or master's theses).

The Germany Scholarships are used to reach talented people with whom it was not yet possible to establish professional contacts as students. This was the case for Anton Koshelev. It was only through the Deutschlandstipendium that he came into contact with his sponsor.

Anton Koshelev was born in Moscow in 1996. His native language is Russian. He speaks English and German fluently. In 2018, he came to Germany to enrol in the Master's programme in Chemistry at TU Clausthal. Previously, he had obtained a double degree in Moscow at the Russian Technological University (i.e. Lomonosov Moscow State University) in the bachelor's programmes in chemistry and industrial engineering. He wrote his thesis on "Preparation of surface-active oligomeric siloxanes with endamino groups for immunochemical research".

Both the university and the topic were not chosen by chance - since the 9th grade he was working towards getting to one of the best chairs of the university one day for his studies: the Chair of Chemistry and Technology of High Molecular Compounds. His scientific research was supported by the contract with the state corporation "Rostec"; where he worked as an engineer and conducted research for a year as part of his bachelor's thesis, which he subsequently defended with the grade "very good".

He really likes the consecutive Master's programme at Clausthal University of Technology, where students have a wide choice of subject combinations; especially the fact that he can decide for himself which area of chemistry he would like to specialise in.

The Germany Scholarship, offers him the opportunity to fully concentrate on his studies.

He is currently working on a project at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute with a very current topic: the "Development of a smartphone-based rapid test for the detection of the corona virus SARS-Cov2".

What motivates Anton Koshelev? What is his next goal?

"Germany is the country of famous chemists like Karl Ziegler, Adolf von Baeyer, Kurt Alder and others. Strong basic science has produced such chemical corporations as BASF and Bayer, and there are many people who, like me, dream of working there and contributing to the development of society. Only the graduates of the best universities in the country are hired at such companies. I am sure: highly qualified education for students, modern laboratories, as well as financial support from universities guarantee that the doors of the best chemical companies in Germany will open for me."

His sponsor can help him achieve this. Dr. Röthele's scientific field and the numerous unique selling points of Sympatec GmbH in the measurement of disperse properties are predestined for this.

Jasmin Hoff is still at the beginning of her professional career. In October 2020, she successfully completed her studies in environmental process engineering and recycling. Dr. Stephan Röthele was the contact person and mentor within the framework of the Deutschlandstipendium. There are professional overlaps between the sponsor and the scholarship holder when it comes to professional sorting or the particle technology aspects of environmental process engineering and recycling, and there are other similarities, such as the fact that both are first-year students in their families. Jasmin Hoff is 27 years old. Her father is an industrial foreman and her mother works as a caregiver in a nursing home.

After graduating from high school, Jasmin Hoff decided to complete vocational training as a specialist for recycling and waste management at KreisWirtschaftsBetrieben Goslar.

Her tasks included the loading of push bows with residual waste with the help of a wheel loader, green maintenance with a scythe and lawn mower, levelling ground areas with a caterpillar and the professional sorting and packaging of pollutants. Already during her apprenticeship, she learned to assert herself in a rather 'typical male profession'.

Her interest in environmental technology grew and so, after completing her vocational training, she decided to study biotechnology and environmental technology at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences in Wolfenbüttel. Already in the first semester of the Bachelor's program she was awarded by the Zonta Club Salzgitter for outstanding performance.

It turned out that her studies were the right decision, not only because she has a lot of fun and ambition, but also because, as she says, she was able to broaden her horizons in a completely different way than before. Determined as Jasmin Hoff is, she enrolled in the Master's degree program in Environmental Process Engineering and Recycling at the Clausthal University of Technology after receiving her Bachelor of Engineering degree.

It completely corresponded to her ideas of a Master's course. It also allowed her to study in the region where she lives and to get involved socially, for example as a teamer in the confirmation seminar of the parish of St. Johannes Goslar.

Her next goal is a doctorate at the Institute for Processing, Landfill Technology and Geomechanics at the Clausthal University of Technology. The Deutschlandstipendium and the support of her sponsor will help her get a little closer to this goal.