Student interview: Dwiky Rendra of AMC

 The third-year student Dwiky Rendra from Indonesia has engaged some experiments during his high school years, and he wanted to continue conducting research in the university. He was accepted by the AMC course in 2011, and mostly completed studying the foundational scientific subjects by 2013. Now he enjoys most of his time experimenting for his own research, and looks back on how he chose his field of studies. “I was fascinated with learning about biological processes at high school, and the good thing for me is that there are biochemistry classes here,” he says. Although he is affiliated with the chemistry department, he was, and is still, drawn to the field of biology. He works on issues related to the human body.

Dwiky Rendra

 Dwiky is affiliated with Prof. Satoshi Takahashi’s laboratory, and specializes in a cancer suppressor protein called p53. They work together to look for roles of inker region in p53. “I was so happy that I could start experiments from the summer of freshman year. It is such a rare opportunity,” he smiled. While many international students have returned to their home countries to escape from the cold winter season, Dwiky is staying in Sendai to continue researching. The combination of chemistry and biology perfectly fits his area, so he truly thinks of his choice as suitable.

 Having lived at University House Sanjo for two years, Dwiky now resides at a house shared with his friend. His friend had already been living there for a while, so Dwiky easily found a place to live. One of the reasons is the existence of a large Indonesian community at Tohoku University, and their way of helping each other. Dwiky mentions, however, that many international students find a place to live without much difficulty. “Many friends of mine live in apartments in Sendai.” “Once they visit a local real-estate agency, they easily find nice apartments,” he continued.

 Students may think they will never need to go to a Japanese hospital. However, adjusting to a new country can be hard on your health. It is actually very common for international students to require medical care. For example, at the end of last year, one FGL student was diagnosed with tuberculosis, but recovered from it thanks to good care by the hospital. Dwiky also had to see a doctor this year suffering from a cold. When he visited a local clinic, he was given a medical interview sheet in English, which was helpful. “Doctors seemed to be used to foreign patients,” he recalled. His full recovery shows that there is nothing to worry in the event of sickness.

 Having found his own objective at Tohoku University, Dwiky genuinely looks forward to his future. By doing what he enjoys, he will be contributing to beneficial changes for human life.