I was born in a heavily industrialized city in northern China. I remember my grandma used to sing a very beautiful folk song to me when we sat in the yard and enjoyed the pleasant summer evenings. I can't remember what exactly the lyrics said, however I do recall it saying how gorgeous my hometown used to be. The area adjacent to our town was, at one time, boundless prairie that was home to thousands of species of wild life. I could hardly believe it because what I see now is a gigantic heavily polluted city with its surrounding area losing land to desert day by day. Grandma's stories about our pretty town kindled my interest in pursuing a career that could help restore our town's stunning natural beauty. Hoping to tackle the problem of pollution by improving the traditional chemical engineering processes, I applied and was later admitted by the Department of Chemical Engineering at XX University, China's most prestigious University. From then on, I embarked on my lifelong journey toward making a better and greener world.
With a clear goal in mind, I continued my journey and experienced an exciting course full of adventures and discoveries. My hunger for knowledge was heightened and my interest in research was intensified during my undergraduate years at XX. I devoted much of my time studying and was exposed to a full range of courses in engineering and science that prepared me with adequate technical skills and a solid theoretical foundation to conduct research. As my understanding of green chemistry and chemical engineering processes deepened, and as I noticed how little people were aware of the severity of environmental problems, I began to involve myself more in extracurricular activities that aimed at heightening the society's awareness of environmental issues. As the head of the Green Dream Society in the university, I proposed and organized a university wide contest of environmental protection knowledge and a series of seminars on green chemistry for layman. At the end of my junior year, I had an extremely rewarding experience as a research assistant intern at the R&D Department in Beijing Yanshan Petrolchemical Group Corporation. At the summer internship, my research capability, my technical and interpersonal skills were recognized and lauded. Moreover, the enjoyable intellectual interactions with colleagues who held Master's or Ph.D. degrees helped me make up my mind to pursue graduate study after graduation. My academic records of consistently ranking number one among the 30 students in my class and top three among the 130 students in my year, coupled with my research experience, showed ample proof of my dedication to learning. The graduating with Dean's Honors and the award of Excellent Undergraduate of XX University was the result of my firm belief in the value of diligence, as well as my renewed determination to strive for perfection in both work and school.
To carry on my journey and my dream of a green world, I started my graduate study toward a M.S. in Chemical Engineering at XX University, the nation's best program in this field. Industrial ecology, a burgeoning and promising field that would profoundly change China's traditional chemical engineering processes and help the country achieve sustainable economic development, sparkled my intense research interest. Therefore, I joined Professor ***'s PSE group, the pioneer of China's industrial ecology research and education. During my graduate study, the challenging laboratory projects played a key role in boosting my confidence, helping me to understand various concepts pertaining to the field and enhancing my problem solving skills. To excel in graduate school, I decided I would not limit my experience to the laboratory work and the formal education at school. One of the projects that attracted me most was the design of an information system for Quzhou (a city in south China) Eco-industrial Park. The rut of the entire project was to develop an information system that facilitated the exchange of information. Considering my expertise in database and computer programming design, my advisor assigned me the head of a research group composed of four graduate students and several undergraduate students. I went on three field trips to collect hands-on data, coordinated efforts within the team, sought valuable help from experts at the Department of Computer Science and School of Management in XX University, and actively interacted with people on the development committee of the industrial park. In the end, we successfully completed the project and even exceeded the committee's expectations. This project was especially remarkable in that it was China's first network information system for an eco-industrial park. It was because of this, our project became the only award-winning student project at the University in the year of 2001. In doing the project, I depended heavily upon the interpersonal techniques I developed as a counselor in a XX residence hall, as well as the organizational skills I had acquired through holding various leadership positions in cultural and engineering societies. On a personal level, I've gained quite a bit from this experience. Confident in my ability to adapt to new environments and learn techniques that I have never encountered, I have also learned a great deal about the nature of private-sector research and the lifestyle of the researchers. Familiar with the amount of dedication and hard work essential to project advancement, I am more focused on my goal of becoming an excellent researcher than I ever have been. No stranger to the frustration and disappointment inherent in research work, I am spurred on by the thrill of discovery. Furthermore, I have conducted research on utilizing the methodology of fuzzy inference to evaluate an eco-industrial park development project, one of the basic evaluation methods used by the decision support system. Currently I've been exploring agent-based modeling for industrial ecosystems. As a reward of my excellent academic performance, I was recently awarded Changxing Chemical Engineering Scholarship and Excellent Graduate Student of XX University.
My long-term career goals are to become a leading researcher in the field of chemical and environmental engineering and devote myself to the world's sustainable development. I believe attaining the Ph.D. degree is the cornerstone to achieving my goals. Eager to continue my education and improve my research skills, I am particularly interested in becoming more familiar with emerging technologies relating to environmental chemical engineering and green chemistry. I believe that *** University is the best environment for me to achieve my goals. Its diversity offers an environment for learning, both inside and outside the classroom. Its outstanding academic reputation, mingled with its diverse environment and thriving *** area location, creates an opportunity for growth that is second to none. I hope to share my varied knowledge with my classmates and to take from them a new understanding of topics that are foreign to me. I believe that an education from *** will provide invaluable experiences and skills that will allow me to become a successful and innovative researcher in the new millennium. My motivation to succeed is reflected in both my academic standing and my dedication to research. I feel that these attributes, combined with a profound interest in environmental and chemical engineering, will ensure me success as a graduate student at *** University.
My green world dream has yet to be fulfilled and I am ready to embark on another journey!
