Stanford Personal History Statement

Chin-Hsien (Leslie) WANG No.7, Alley 2, Lane 188, Chung Hwa Road Wuri Hsiang, Taichung, Taiwan 414

1985/12/30

[email protected] +886-933-188069

Although living a fairly comfortable life now, my family was in poverty when I was a little boy. Because of this, I cultivated my perseverance and knew life is not always easy from the early stage of my studies. Since I grew up without many pleasures that other people might take for granted, improving the way people live has special meaning to me. Hence I realized that conducting research with real-world applications is the ultimate pursuit of my career so as to make living more convenient. With this in mind, combined with my interest in applied physics, I decided to dedicate myself to the development of new technologies in solid state device and physical electronics. It was in high school when I first discovered my passion toward experimental physics. What I craved from class was to understand nature, to figure out why things function as they do. To me, high school was not merely a place that prepared me for the college entrance exam. It is also a place to explore my life course. In order to gain more possibilities for my life, I took part in American Regions Math League in 2002 and won a personal award. It was an unforgettable experience to compete with foreign students, and the visits to Stanford University, UC Berkeley and MIT encouraged me to work much harder to shoot for an opportunity to study in these top schools. Soon after that, I was selected as "gifted students in elementary science". Only twenty high school students won this scholarship from The Ministry of Education and were encouraged to do research with famous college professors. I studied math with Professor Fang-Bo Yeh at Tunghai University for two years, and learned about calculus, Newton's Method and numerical analysis. Professor Yeh treated me very well. He taught me things about research as well as his life experience, which was inspiring. At that time, I first discovered my passion toward research. Afterwards, I gained the credit to participate in the 5th Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO) in Vietnam as well as the 35th International physics Olympiad (IPhO) in Korea, both awarded a bronze medal. This guaranteed my entrance to National Taiwan University, the best university in Taiwan. Because of my interests and curiosity in both engineering and experimental physics, I decided to major in electrical engineering. In 2006, I obtained the Taiwan Merit Scholarships from the Ministry of Education for the performance of my first two years of undergraduate studies and my participation in the Olympiad. Then, I earned a chance to go to University of Illinois for one year as an exchange student. I lived in a school dormitory with an American roommate, with whom I experienced different culture. Not only did I took EE courses, I also enrolled in a social and cultural

geography class, in which I learned a lot about American social customs, values and the points of view toward the world. I can recall the anxiety when I glanced around the room, realizing that I was the only Chinese student in a lecture hall of one hundred and fifty students. However, I continued with perseverance to pursue my dream. I became independent and self-reliant after living abroad alone. For example, I traveled around the United States in both the winter vacation and the summer vacation as a backpacker. The year in the United States provided me with valuable opportunity to exchange research ideas and life experiences with people and graduate students from a variety of cultural backgrounds and nationalities, which reassured my desire to study in the U.S. After a series of professional science educations, I believe that obtaining a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University is the ideal way to maximize my abilities in the field and to begin pursuing my dream, to improve technology to carry out a better future for this world. Based on the academic and research training I have completed in Taiwan and the U.S., I am confident in my capacity to contribute to the field as a research scientist. Furthermore, as a Chinese student and an Olympiad participant, my cultural background and connections with the academia in Taiwan are the unique contributions that I can bring to the Stanford campus. Combining my perseverance, academic background and experiences with my drive to learn new materials and skills, I feel I am an excellent candidate for the Ph.D. program at the Stanford University.