Graduate / "Being a leader in carbon capture" - my SOP (PhD Chemical Engineering) [5]

I still remember that day. It was just after my graduation that my BS director of study proposed me a 5-years job with a very good salary in XX, one of the most famous engineering companies in Iran. The job offer put me into a dilemma: to be an engineer or to pursue my interests in science by continuing my education. "What do I really want? And who do I want to be?" I asked myself and I remembered pictures of school time. Being enthusiast in exploring things to find out their functioning mechanisms; applying and mixing new understandings to build "useful, novel things", and forgetting about time. I relived my memories and discovered my passion again: doing research. That was the day in which I made my decision to become a professional researcher and now I am just continuing my way through my aim.

For bachelor, I have chosen chemical engineering because I believed I could use my creativity to design, develop and optimize processes in this major. In this period of time, I had serious financial problems which forced me to work and study simultaneously; this negatively affected my grades. I decided to use this hard condition as an opportunity to improve my skills and learn as much as possible. So, I started to do research projects for my peers and collaborate with the university faculties, which was a source of income for me too. Meanwhile, I have used my programming knowledge to do simulations with computer. Soon it became my hobby, predicting what will happen if you change a specific parameter and checking your understandings. The result was a deep knowledge of principals of chemical engineering like transport phenomena and thermodynamics.

During these years I also tried to improve my team working abilities and deepen my understandings of the universe by actively participating in sport activities, social programs, music festivals, reading books and watching documentary videos [1]. I have continued my athletic and music activities up to now. Through these experiences I gained a unique combination of self control, leadership and team working skills which helps me to build an effective communication with my colleagues.

In summer 2003, I decided to pass the "internship" course in XX (MWPI) where I became familiar with two main problems of paper production in MWPI: huge amount of energy consumption and high water pollution which raised energy and environmental issues for me for the first time. In that period, environmental issues were more appealing to me. Therefore, I started to do research on the latter, studying nano-filtration process for MWPI effluent decolorization.

After BS, I started to broaden my knowledge in different aspects of chemical engineering. Among many papers and books that I read, papers related to "novel energy technologies" captivated my interest. Therefore, I decided to continue my education in energy engineering. I had to study very hard to be successful in the university entrance exam, due to limited positions in the field. I studied core courses in such a way that I ended up among top 2% of all participants. And I was admitted to XX University of Technology, which is undoubtedly the best technological university of Iran.

During my master, I tried to present my findings from each course in a paper, patent or software. Also my grades improved to a much higher level and I was among top 5% of the class. To choose my MSc thesis, I consulted with the faculties of the university. While counting on my skills in constructing things, I decided to do an experimental research on Solar Water Heaters under supervision of Professor XX. Therefore I made the experimental setup by myself. Because of my interests in real-time systems, I started to read about real-time programming and sensors and I built my experimental setup as automated as possible and developed a software to monitor the experiments.

After graduation, I continued my cooperation with Prof. XX as a researcher and team coordinator in XX (NCCO), in close cooperation with UNDP and JICA [2]. In NCCO, I had contributions in a research on modeling of Iran's energy system for predicting the GHG emissions of the country till 2025. The results of this study are surprising for me! Growth rate of GHG emissions is very high. I deeply felt the need for doing something to reduce the rate. Therefore, I decided to continue my education to gain required knowledge to make significant contributions regarding GHG emissions of Iran. Then a question arose: in what field, exactly?

While I was working in NCCO, I gained the opportunity to do research in Energy Studies Department of XX (RIPI) due to my membership in XX. During this period, I was a member of executive board of the "Carbon Capture Workshop" held in RIPI in April 2010. As the result I was in close networking with a group of professionals in CCS from around the world. Although, I was familiar with CO2 Capture, due to my contributions in another MS thesis[3] , but this experience made CO2 Capture more relevant to Iran's needs in my point of view. A few months later, I attended GHGT conference to present my latest paper, in Sep. 2010.

Taking part in GHGT was a unique experience. I met many leading people in the field like Prof. Rubin from Carnegie Mellon University who I have worked with his IECM model before, Prof. Rochelle from Texas at Austin, Prof. Herzog from MIT and many other exceptional scientists. Also, I participated in "Global Technology Roadmap for CCS in Industry" conference in Amsterdam on behalf of Energy Division of RIPI to state CCS potentials of Iran. Attending these two conferences and having discussion with the most experienced people in capturing CO2 I got convinced to continue my studies in this field. Based on my interests and experiences in modeling and coding, I decided to choose optimization, simulation and modeling of novel CO2 capture technologies as the field that I plan to dedicate myself to, not only for 4-5 years during my PhD or post-doc study but for my whole life.

For short, making noticeable contributions on my field of interest, by applying my creativity, perseverance, idealism and the gift of analytical thinking, gives meaning to my life. After all of my academic and non-academic achievements, I believe I can be one of the best students of your university. Being admitted in your program, is just the first step of reaching to my final goal, being a leader in carbon capture science and transfer of the science to my country.

I appreciate your time and consideration.
Sincerely yours

[1] Please refer to "Besides" section of my resume.
[2] Japan International Cooperation Agency
[3] In June 2009, Dr. Soltanieh asked my cooperation in a MS thesis titled "Modeling and Economic Assessment of CO2 Capture by Oxy-fuel Combustion in Power Plants". I was responsible for simulation parts of the project but my contributions continued until the end of the thesis