Celina Love moved to the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden in 2016 to work on synthetic biological symptoms. She says she was shocked by the xenophobia she saw in the city, and has been involved in speaking out against it.

Why did you decide to do your PhD in Dresden?

It was serendipity. I work in synthetic biology and research the factors that influence enzyme reactions. After I finished my master’s degree at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, my former supervisor Dora Tang moved to the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden and asked me to join her. I wanted to go abroad, and I knew that Germany has a good quality of life.

What is iteven though I am also a foreigner, because apparently for them I have the right colour of skin. This hypocrisy is infuriating.

Why did you co-write a letter speaking out against racism?

In September 2018, a PhD student from Egypt was verbally abused and physically intimidated on public transport. A person started shouting that the student should go back to the country that she came from, and then the person followed her. It is not the first time something like this has happened. So Peter Swekis, a spokesperson for doctoral candidates from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, initiated the idea of publishing an open letter condemning this behaviour and advocating the importance of cross-border collaboration for the advancement of scientific research. I joined him,