Environmental Sciences

Stacy Shao
She is a 12th grade student from Shanghai YK Pao School, who is interested in an Environmental Sciences research work.

Stacy is in the top 10% of her class (39/42 GPA, International Baccalaureate curriculum). She was in the finals of the China Thinks Big competition for their project – a game they designed to teach students about green energy and sustainability.

University admission result

★ USC
★ UIUC
★ University of Wisconsin

Learning objectives

• The student was given freedom to select the topic of the program with some guidance from the mentor. The overall program was well- paced, except perhaps for sessions #5 and #6, which were set only a few days apart to accommodate the student’s travel arrangements and did not give the student much time to digest the course materials.
• The program goals and learning objectives have been achieved. The student received several lectures to acquire basic knowledge in separation and adsorption processes, which she used successfully to review recent literature studies about the removal of forever chemicals from aqueous environments.

What challenges did she face?

• The most challenging aspect was for Stacy to acquire the necessary knowledge and underlying concepts related to sorption phenomena.
• This was necessary to allow Stacy to understand and summarize recent peer-reviewed research on PFAS remediation, which is an ambitious topic (selected by the student) to tackle at such a young age.

How did our program help her?

• Stacy deep-dived into her subject of interest and gained tremendous knowledge. Her research topic on Perfluoroalkyl and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) remediation is at the boundary between chemical engineering, materials science and environmental science & engineering.
• Stacy’s mentor initiated to write recommendation letters for her graduate application in the future.

Matched Professor

The mentor is an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences’ Bioresource Science and Engineering program. His research encompasses every aspect of materials design and engineering, which has led to a number of significant advances in the field of multifunctional nanocomposites with exceptional performance in catalytic, environmental and electronics applications

“I have enjoyed getting to know her as a person. Her work ethic and self-drive are one of a kind for such a young student. She also presented herself with poise through all the challenges I introduced her.“

Mentor from University of Washington