The runner
Jessica Gosse is an engineer as well as an experienced relay runner
It was the 2013 Girl’s Day, a career event for young girls in STEM subjects, when Jessica Gosse decided on her future career path. The then 14-year-old got a sneak peek into what it meant working for the Adlershof-based company AEMtec and didn’t take any further convincing. AEM stands for assembly, engineering, and manufacturing. With 270 employees and a headquarters on James-Franck-Strasse with two office floors and a cleanroom manufacturing space, the company develops and produces complex electronic microsystems for use in, for example, medical technology.
She was fascinated back then, says Gosse, by “how little everything was.” People were handling wires that were finer than a single hair’s breadth. She was also impressed by the extent to which “microsystems make our lives easier. We cannot do without them in today's world.”
Since 2001, the mission of the annual Girl’s Day has been to spark enthusiasm among girls and young women for scientific and technical occupations. With Jessica Gosse, this expectation has been fully met. One year later in 2014, she completed and internship at AEMtec and began an apprenticeship as a microtechnologist there after graduating from high school in 2017. It was then that she first heard about the company relay race—an Adlershof tradition. One of her instructors asked her if she would like to join. She did.
After all, a need for movement had been with her since childhood. When she was six, she joined the local dancing club in Rudow, where she grew up, and she is still taking part in tournaments with the same club. She loves running and doesn’t mind long distances, sometimes on the treadmill at the gym. She usually takes the bike to commute from her home in Schöneweide to her workplace.
In 2020, she embarked on a four-year study programme for microsystems technology at the HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences in Schöneweide and continued to work at AEMtec as a student assistant. Central to her bachelor’s thesis was the question how a certain solder alloy, which connects chips and circuit boards in microsystems manufacturing, behaves under conditions of strongly fluctuating temperatures.
Anyone suspecting Gosse of being inclined to stick with something no matter what will not hear any objections from her. She agrees: “Yes, that sounds like me.” This also applies to her work at AEMtec. It applies no less to the endurance with which she competes in the relay race year after year and the effort with which she prepares herself for it. Once a week, she runs a 2.9-kilometre trail, the circular path around today’s landscaped park in Johannisthal, which used to be an airfield.
The fact that her workplace is right next door is another feature that she appreciates about Adlershof. It becomes clear by the way she talks about the place: Belonging to it holds a special significance for her. She cites things like “the very future-oriented work environment” and is impressed by “all the things being studied here”. She also mentions “amicable” encounters. The areas on both sides of Rudower Chaussee seem to her what the city of the future could be like.
Gosse hasn’t missed a single relay race in Adlershof since 2017. She has noticed that “the people participating tend to be same people and we have gotten to know each other”. This, too, fosters a sense of belonging. It’s not about setting new records. Nevertheless, AEMTEC team scored an honourable 17th place among 217 other teams in 2013.
Dr. Winfried Dolderer for Adlershof Journal