PhD Program in Natural Science Admission Personal Statement

My exceptional talent in natural science was the stable building block of my fundamental knowledge and actively gave direction to my research career. In high school, I not only excelled in my class, but also put great concentration on knowledge beyond the scope of the textbooks, and later I joined the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. During the four-year college life, I was always the top student in the order of ranking which earned me several honors like national scholarship, merit student, and Japan government scholarship. My excellence in chemistry and biology significantly contributed to my lab's oriented research.

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Self-motivation was the most distinctive attribute that set me apart from my peers in college. Research was my ultimate goal soon after my college commencement, and I was the first person to enter our academy's lab, focusing on a liposome-based drug delivery system. Initially, I did not know of the research, and I used my spare time after the daily course to learn how to search, read journals, and basic experiment concepts. After one year of hard work, I succeeded in my research and published a patent. Moreover, my positive attitude toward research gave my tutor a good impression which gave me a job as a research assistant for the junior student's research on breast cancer drug resistance.

Perseverance contributed to my zeal towards biological science. I managed to adapt quickly after the initial instruction for the experiment in the new research field. After this initial stage, I worked for an average of 5 hours during weekdays and more than 12 hours during the weekend. Besides, I spent nearly all day every day in the lab during the winter holiday. Eventually, after more than half a year of hard work, we successfully elucidated multiple cell signal transduction pathways, and all these results were published in three different journals. After gaining the research experience, I increased my zeal towards my research targets. Later, I was able to select my research topics, establish experimental schedules and analyze data on my own. I chose to finish my graduation thesis in a different lab that specified on organic synthesis during my final undergraduate year. In the new lab, I began my research on asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation of 3-benzoylpropionic acid. In the end, my hard work paid off, and I was honored with for creating the best bachelor thesis of SJTU (top 1%).

My achievements paved the road for my future career. Later on, I was admitted to the Department of Chemistry, at the University of Tokyo. Here I had an opportunity to exhibit all my previous research experiences and skills. I majored in chemistry for my masters to develop my research experience in the biochemical field; this was to benefit my PhD application. With this plan in mind, I started to research on the construction of artificial DNA double strands in Prof. Shionoya's lab. I focused more on the structural properties and managed to devise new building blocks apart from the initially established ones. I spent my spare time learning new experimental procedures and fundamental knowledge that had not been covered at the undergraduate level.

Conclusion

To conclude, self-motivation, perseverance and taking the initiative in research played a significant role in the development of my career. Currently, I'm ready to pursue the advanced molecular biosciences cluster in the University of Chicago. I can assert with confidence that I'm a competitive candidate for this PhD program.