Sop to pursue PhD in Climate Change/ Hydrology

Hi there,

Hope you all are doing great. This is my first SOP writing. can anyone review my SOP and put some insight, please. It would be so kind of you if you can give me some suggestions regarding SOP writing.

Thanks

The story starts on 15th November 2007. I was a high schooler and still can imagine the strong wind blowing scaterdely all day long. News channels and radios were continuously broadcasting meteorological updates and warnings that the southwestern coast of Bangladesh would be hit by a supercyclone named Sidr. Sun went down with its light and took many lives and hopes along with it. The wind speed started increasing and finally, the cyclone made its landfall in the Sundarbans area with heavy rainfall. The highest wind speed was recorded 260km/hr with the storm surge of over 5 meters (16 ft) leading to 3447 deaths recorded governmentally whereas some international organizations estimated the number of death was around 15000 along with 2.31 billion USD worth of properties damaged. One-fourth area of the Sundarbans mangrove forest was destroyed which may take almost 40 years to recover from the catastrophe, as claimed by researchers. That incident was spotted on my mind and later on triggered me to select my M.Sc. thesis topic.

After completing college, I sat for the admission test in 2011. I got a chance to study civil engineering at the IUBAT-International University of Business Agriculture and Technology which is the first private university in Bangladesh. At that time my tuition fee was high enough so I was looking for a part-time job and I managed to get a job at Robi Axiata Ltd which is one of most renowned Telecommunication Brand in Bangladesh I worked there as a customer care executive who solved customer's mobile sim related problem. Solving the sim-related problems over the phone was no easy task because a huge number of people in our country did not have technical knowledge. Even maximum rural people did not know how to use an analogue phone properly. This job taught me how to be calm in a time of rash, problem-solving, and personal grooming, and it enhanced my communication skills so that I never faced any difficulties in my presentations whether it was in work or academia. I was way more comfortable in verbal communication with people which helped me to secure a place in the ICES-IUBAT Civil Engineering Society in the student acquisition team. However, in the third year of my undergrad life I started to learn AutoCAD 2D and 3D software and started to create interior and exterior design models.

I took a break from study after completing undergrad and focused on my job due to financial instability. I was promoted as a backend audit officer and continued my work as a quality auditor.

By the end of 2016 I got admitted at DUET-Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology in Civil Engineering Department to persue M.Sc. Engineering. My major was Water Resources Engineering. One of my course was on ICZM-Integrated Coastal Zone Management by Prof. Dr. Shibly Anwar. For the first time of my academic life I came to know about GIS and remote sensing work. I was so much into that working method. Each and every lecture of Dr. Anwar made me hungrier for knowledge about his lecture and I decided to pursue my thesis under Dr. Anwar.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and financial issues I had to pause my studies again. I started another job at a Readymade Garments Factory as an Environmental and Safety Engineer where I was responsible for ETP monitoring, Gary water utilization, Occupational health and Safety monitoring. During my work in this factory, I arranged a vaccination campaign for Covid-19 collaborating with local government authorities for the workers of the factory. Under that program we were able to vaccinate (4 doses with booster dose) almost 600 officials and workers of the factory and certified them as vaccinated with the help of government of Bangladesh. As a safety engineer, I was also responsible to conduct training for the workers regarding environmental and health safety.

By 2022 again I focused on my study. I started my thesis under Prof. Dr. Anwar and started to learn ArcGIS software and go through numerous research papers that were conducted by using ArcGIS. At that time cyclone Sidr incident triggered me and finally, I came up with an idea of my thesis. As Sundarbans was the only barrier between the mainland and the open sea, Bay of Bengal, I started working with the morphological changes across the Sundarbans along with the impact of Sea level rising on this area. Using 30 Landsat Images from 1989-2022 ,the rate of shoreline changes of the islands of Sundarbans was estimated in my thesis where sea level rising trend was computed using hourly tide data from Hiron Point tide gauge station from 1980-2022. And finally I tried to find the interaction of sea level trend and the morphological changes of the Sundarbans. Currently, I am working with my journal . beside this I am trying to learn flood modelling.

While searching for a university for pursuing PhD I come to know about Dr.................. of ........university. where I can find that she is also a GIS expert which catches my eye. I was certain at the moment and made Dr..... my first choice as her area of interest is a match with me. It inspires me to apply ........... university . I am hoping that working under her supervision can enhance my ability in the research field. My adopting capability and communication skills will help me to cope up with the team easily. I am also comfortable with both team and individual work. Therefore, I hope a chance to pursue PhD at ..............university. I believe it will help me to set my steps closer to my dream.

I really did not see any purpose behind this statement. A statement of purpose should not be confused with a personal statement that describes your personal life or academic biography. The statement of purpose must focus on your continued learning experience and future career path. In this case, you should pick up the discussion from the time after you completed your masters course. What career path have you charted since? How close are you to achieving your ultimate career goal? How does the PhD work itself into the upgraded career flow? Consider all of your post masters accomplishments, where else are you lacking in skill or theoretical learning? As a PhD student, whose work do you feel you can collaborate with at the university? How does your desire to expose yourself to that field align with the original purpose of the pre-existing research or program?