I (think) I want to go to grad school now. But I need to write my personal statement. I have been trying to gather info for it about a week already, but I seem to be lacking in inspiration. What story am I going to tell? I just keep staring at my blinking cursor... I will post up a draft of it here when I complete my 1st draft.
FIGHTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE: I finally finished the 1st draft of my PS! I've sent to my career center since they proof-read PS's before sending it to my professor to read.
1ST Draft: 03/11 – 03/15/2011
I am applying for the PhD program in Chemical Engineering and how I came to that decision all began while I was still attending Brooklyn Technical High School. I was given a homework assignment to summarize newspaper articles, and since I already had an interest in the sciences, I went straight to the Science section of the New York Times. I was browsing through the pages when I came across an article entitled “Not Science Fiction: An Elevator to Space.” I was immediately drawn to it as I wondered as to how the author was going to convince me that a space elevator was not an artisan’s fantasy.
As I continued to read further, it became more difficult to contain my excitement at all the possibilities that would abound from this project development. Although the space elevator is still in its conceptual phase, it already holds many promising advantages including easier access to space, lowered costs in launching spacecrafts, commercial exploitation, and others, in which, all makes way for more enabling technologies. In fact, the logistics of the building plan are already underway; however, the current technology is still not up to par with the visionary’s standards.
The space elevator construction has come to represent an enormous engineering feat. One of the most problematic features is the cable material. The material requirements called for something that is light-weight and yet, strong enough to support several tons. Neither steel nor any other material at the time offered a viable solution, until the spur in nanotube research in the 1990s. Carbon nanotube is an active area of study due to its many attractive properties and potential capabilities in mechanical and electronic applications. However, the longest nanotube created thus far has only been a few centimeters long, and hence, more research work is necessary. Overcoming this obstacle and others to come is what I envisioned myself in partaking.
In college, I selected my major in chemistry because I wanted to understand the underlying science and theories that could potentially be applied in material research. In addition, the chemistry curriculum incorporated a rigorous amount of chemistry, physics, and math courses that would be practical for my studies since material science is a special field of the multinterdisciplinary nature. I was also interested in doing research in carbon nanotubes and other related nanosciences since there is still so much to learn from them before they can be applied on a grander scale. At the Stony Brook University, I participated in a short-term project under Dr. Katarzyna Sawicka, where my lab group analyzed nanofibers generated from the electrospinning technique. After I transferred to the City College of New York to complete my undergraduate studies, I joined Dr. Zhonghua Yu’s laboratory, where Raman spectroscopy was being used to study the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes. I learned to operate Raman spectroscopy-related instruments to collect images and spectra, compile the data into graphs using ORIGIN software, and analyze the data displayed. In addition to developing my lab skills, I delved into almost every aspect of the research process – conducting literature searches, recording data into log books, following lab protocol, writing lab reports in an academic journal fashion, attending departmental seminars, presenting a PowerPoint media on my work, and editing draft versions of article submittals. My contributions to this research have already been published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry and Carbon, and one article to be published in the Annual of City College Exemplary Science Students Research.
When I graduated from the City College of New York with a B.S. degree and awarded with the Ward Medal & J. Birnbaum Scholarship in Chemistry, I was hesitant to admit immediately into graduate school. My initial intention was to enter the private industry before obtaining a higher degree. Unfortunately, for the past year I have been unsuccessful in this endeavor and only found success in jobs unrelated to my career interests. After several interview setbacks, I eventually came to realize that I needed more experience and specialized knowledge, of which I can only obtain from graduate school. After reviewing the list of courses offered at the Grove School of Engineering, I immediately knew that I wanted to apply for the PhD program in the Department of Chemical Engineering. By attending courses such as advanced materials engineering, polymer science, and nanotechnology, I felt confident that the work done there would equip me with the skills and knowledge that I need in making the most effective contribution to the field.
I am also particularly attracted to one of the research areas undertaken by the chemical engineering department, which is nanomaterials and self assembly. Dr. Alexander Couzis and his research group are engaged in multiple research ventures and I am primarily interested in their molecular engineering project involving chemically functionalized nanoisland surfaces. This project would allow me to make the best use of my education as this research requires an in-depth chemical science understanding at the molecular level as well as applying the appropriate engineering techniques in acquiring the desired functionalities. In addition, I would be able to learn more about the process of self-assembly since I have yet to gain exposure to this interesting phenomenology. In the mechanical engineering department, I am also intrigued by the work done by Dr. Jackie J. Li and her lab. Since I had previously studied the characterization of single-walled carbon nanotubes in my undergraduate research, I can now extend further in Dr. Li’s experimental investigations of the mechanical and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes and other nanocomposites. In addition, I wish to apply the molecular mechanics based approach that she had developed for evaluating the elastic properties of both single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes since this study makes a significant impact in fabricating nanomaterials for mechanical purposes.
I want to thank my undergraduate research mentor, Dr. Yu, for providing me the opportunity to engage in hands-on work in nanoscience research and develop lab skills that are essential to my intellectual pursuits. This experience showed me that the field of nanotechnology is broad and broader still in the areas that remain undiscovered or unascertained. At the City College of New York, by including an engineering perspective alongside my background in chemistry, I can make a larger step forward in expanding the current knowledge base in nanotechnology and developing novel nanomaterials that can become potentially applicable for building the space elevator or other commercial enterprises.
