Personal Statement
Applied Program: Biomaterials

It is my belief that life should be a constant process of self-transcendence and an attempt to arrive at new heights. In this quest for personal fulfillment, the advent of every single day constitutes a new starting point for me. With this belief, I have made important achievements in the days gone by. It is again with this belief that I have forced myself to embark on a new journey of challenges.

I graduated from the Department of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine of China Agriculture University. For me, university education constituted a palace of knowledge in which I was able to enrich myself with all the foundational knowledge in my specialty. The persistent efforts with which I devoted myself to my studies and the effective study strategies enabled me to achieve No.1 class rank for three consecutive years, with particularly outstanding performance in the courses of my specialty. Especially worth mentioning is my special interest in English learning throughout the four-year undergraduate program. I acted as chairman of the College’s English Association. Such an interest in English learning has helped me acquire sound English proficiency, an ability which has benefited me tremendously in my later-day studies and research. At the same time, through English learning, I developed my comprehensive qualities.

If my 4-year undergraduate program is merely a process of laying a sound foundation in basic knowledge in my specialty, the 3-year graduate program that I subsequently pursued at the university became a period in which my academic interests and creativity were allowed to fully develop and come into initial fruition. I succeeded in switching from Veterinary Medicine to Biomedical Engineering. The most significant accomplishment I achieved in my graduate program was a pioneering research I carried out regarding the blood compatibility materials in the graduation project. In this research, I first summarized the existing problems in the prevalent blood compatibility materials, such as the differing degree of blood’s binding on the surface of the material, the possibility of the material to damage some of the blood components, and the rejection reaction of the host organism. Then I analyzed in detail the mechanisms of how the blood vessel comes to acquire the blood compatibility. For instance, one of the most important reasons is the concentration of a large quantity of carbohydrate in the outer layer of the inner membrane of the blood vessel. The carbohydrate is in a state of unusual water absorption and expansion （膨潤？）, whose water molecule is in the same quasi-structure condition as the water molecule in the blood vessel, thereby resulting in the extremely low level of interface energy between the inner membrane and the blood. Eventually, based on careful analysis of the structural properties of the blood vessel’s inner membrane and the cytomembrane, I proposed a bold idea of using polymer/liquid crystal composite membrane as the material for the blood compatibility.

A great number of subsequent experiments excitingly proved that this material, which bears close resemblance to the structure of the blood vessel’s inwall, possesses excellent blood compatibility. This discovery not only provided a better blood compatibility material but also opened up a new area in the research of blood compatibility material. Finally, on the basis of this research project, I completed my thesis which, for its originality, received quite high ratings from the specialists in the field. Again, based on its research findings, I published five research papers in both domestic and international academic journals including Biomaterials. In addition, I succeeded in applying for one patent (No. ZL98 1 22268.4) and winning an award for state-level research achievement. Finally, as a special honor, I was appointed as the sole representative of a total of 900 graduate students of our university to be awarded a scholarship for the Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year.

The successes I achieved in the academic research during my graduate studies significantly aroused my zeal for taking up research as my lifelong pursuit. After graduation, I worked at the Animal Health Technology Center attached to Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Science where I was engaged in the development of animal drugs and products of feed additives. For four years, as the technical expert of the center, I developed a total of 13 new products and a few of those products, like “Hou Kang” which is a new composite veterinary medical product, have become the center’s most important profit-making product. Those involvements have considerably increased my rich experience in drug development.

While involved in the development of veterinary medicine, I have also participated in a number of important research projects. In 1998, I completed the project Research on the Effect of Domestic Salinomycin on Pig Growth sponsored by the Science and Technology Committee Foundation of Guangdong Province. As the leading member of the research team, I was responsible for the data collection and data analysis and processing. By the concerted efforts of mine and my collaborators, the project was not only successfully carried out but also was awarded the First Prize of Science and Technology Progress by Guangdong Feed Industry Office. Meanwhile, I published the research findings of this project in the form of two research papers in the core journals of China’s animal husbandry science. In addition, I was a member of the two other research projects funded by Guangdong Provincial Government and the Foundation of the Academy of Agricultural Science of Guangdong Province. They also led to relatively important discoveries and I published a total of 10 research papers in both domestic and international journals. On account of my outstanding research achievements, I was awarded the honor Top Ten Young Scientist of the Academy of Agricultural Science of Guangdong Province.

In retrospection of my research career, I find that I seem to be getting closer and closer to my childhood dream of becoming a fruitful scientist. But I am equally aware that the intellectual world I am entering is a world of infinite unraveled mysteries. The science of biomaterials is an multidisciplinary subject which synthesizes the research findings in biology, medicine, chemistry, and material science. Correspondingly, over the past decade, my research interests have changed from medical science through polymer materials and to drug development. This cross-disciplinary research experience has significantly broadened my ken of knowledge, knowledge that would prove extremely instrumental to my proposed study in biomaterials.

A Ph. D. Program in Biomaterials in what I apply for and all the past research achievements that I have made are my qualifications for applying for this degree program. With those achievements as a starting point, I am acutely aware that challenges abound in many areas of biomaterial research. For me, the best way to be part of this challenge-meeting process is by pursuing advanced studies in the United States. This application is filed under the conviction that the my prospective studies at your reputed university, which will be very fruitful, will enable me to ascend onto new heights in my professional knowledge and expertise. Like many scientists, I believe that science should be in direct service of mankind. For me, the science of biomaterial is a discipline that is much more immediately contribute to the welfare of human beings, especially so in this new millennium which is often designated as the Century of Biotechnology. To get involved in this exciting process will be a worthy cause for me.