(Rice Application)
Started: 09:49 PM, September 07, 2009 (PST)
Sent: 07:07 AM, January 14, 2010 (PST)
At long last, I have finished my graduate and fellowship applications.
I started this whole process back in August getting ready for my NSF Graduate Research Proposal. I have gone back and forth on which schools to apply cutting my list of nine potential fellowships and graduate institutions down to one fellowship and two schools. Its been a long six months but its been I think it will be more successful than last year.
1) National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
2) University of Texas at Austin Cell and Molecular Biology Program
3) Rice University Biochemistry and Cell Biology Graduate Program
UT and Rice are great institutions but what really sold me on these two programs was finding faculty who will help me do the work I want to do. My research interests are like an arrow pointed at one goal: developing a system to generate microbes capable of producing any chemical or biochemical desired. Enzymes provide better tools for chemistry than any synthetic chemist and evolution and replication do the rest of the work. All we need to do is use our "cut & paste" molecular tools to make it happen... or so it would seem to the naive student. I have my whole life ahead of me to solve this problem and I know there is a huge potential for both societal and financial gain. One authors vision of these nascent technologies can be found in the book Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling in which Mr. Sterling envisions bacteria grown by biotech researchers in super-tankers off the coast of Grenada producing cheap food and pharmaceuticals. You may have just guessed where the title of the blog is from ;) .
Its going to happen. Believe It!
In writing up these applications I enlisted close friends and family for feedback on the essays in which I wrapped up the last 8 years of my life into a bundle of words with the hopes of attracting the attention of the best minds in the world. I will check and see, but if the schools don't mind it I will try to reprint my application essays as they may help the other undergraduates out there looking for ideas on organizing your thoughts.
This process has helped me re-learn how to write persuasively. The one bit of career advice that my Father stressed from when I was six was that the most powerful tool that I have is the persuasive use of the English language and I have to agree. As a scientist, it seems like how well you write about your work is as important as the work you do. I don't think my writing was particularly amazing, but I do feel like it was representative of the work that I did and why I did it, which is all I hoped for.
The Future of "Food, Fuel and Pharmacy"
Starting today, I will update this website on Tuesdays and Fridays with science news articles and my journey through academia and (hopefully) industry as a research scientist. By following me or putting me in your RSS reader you will get to know me and the work that I am passionate about. I see this as a longterm project which I am committed through for at least 2010 and if it goes well than many more years to come.
You can also follow me @TheLeavitt for short and sweet reviews on other peoples general news articles.
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