[文书写作] Statement of Purpose(环境科学专业) [复制链接]

加菲熊
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电梯直达

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发表于 2001-10-26 14:07:53 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

Statement of Purpose(环境科学专业)

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Two scenes stand out in my mind from my visit to Brazil’s Wetland: Forests burning before seed planting and trees as hedgerows. Before the planting season, I could see the leafless remnants of burnt trees still standing. The burning of pristine forests destroys both the habitats and countless species which depend on and thrive in these habitats. The few remaining bare, scarred trees silently convey the cost to our natural resources of pursuing our economic interests. Some forests are preserved by government edict issued in response to international pressure. But most of this preservation occurs alongside major roads — not to protect the ecosystem, but to prevent disturbance to ranches and farms along the highways. The clash between economic and environmental concerns that I witnessed in Brazil fascinates me and attracts me to the Environmental Studies Program.

Two courses in my geography department increased my interest in the connection between the environment and economics: Conservation of Underdeveloped Countries and Environmental Impact Analysis. In the former, we studied the problems of natural resource management in developing countries. The balance is always tilted toward economics growth at the expense of environmental preservation. For example, because the Pantanal Wetland could become a highly productive agricultural system once it’s drained, it is drained regardless of the destruction that drainage causes to the ecosystem. Only portions of the wetland are preserved for tourist purposes.

The other course that piqued my interest is an interdisciplinary course called Environmental Impact Analysis in which we, as a group, created matrix and flow diagrams discussing the economic and environmental impact of logging and preservation of old growth forests. I was able to use tools that I acquired in my economics and environmental studies classes. In general, logging creates economic benefits at the local level. It increases employment in the timber industry and subsequently in related non-timber industries; it also benefits local government. Yet, it has great deleterious environmental effects: soil erosion, watershed destruction, and a decrease in specie diversity due to loss of habitat. The logging industry represents the classic clash between economic and environmental interests.

I also took two sequential classes in the economics department that are related to Resource Management — Theories of Growth & Development and Policies for Economic Development. Because the courses were taught by a professor who is concerned chiefly with economic growth, I learned the standard economic rationalizations for development unrestrained by environmental concerns.

In addition to my interest in resource management policies, I have a specific interest in Geographical Information System (GIS), a powerful tool for natural resource management. After taking several related classes in GIS, I began interning for the National Park Service (NPS). After I learn how to use ARC/INFO, a leading GIS package, I will assist the NPS in constructing projects. Some of my duties include spatial and non-spatial data analysis, digitizing themes such as fire locations, vegetation, wildlife habitats, etc., and tabular and graphical presentation of results. I hope to use the tools I acquire during this internship in my continuing study of our environment.

I would like to study the social and economic factors that influence environmental policy formation. For example, because people worry more about pollution than endangered species, laws and regulations concerning environmental pollution are more numerous and stricter than for bio-diversity. Within the School of Environmental Studies, I have a particular interest in the emphasis: Economics, Policy, and Management. This emphasis deals with how economic factors can create negative externalities, such as pollution, and need to be regulated. This emphasis also tries to consider non-economic values, such as aesthetic pleasure and specie diversity. It also discusses tools like GIS and system analysis that apply to environmental management. Because of my interest in GIS, economics, and environmental studies, this emphasis suits me perfectly. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary approach of the School of Environmental Studies attracts me since it combines social science’s strengths with a knowledge of the natural sciences necessary to protect and preserve the environment.

After completing my masters program, I would like to continue my education and obtain a Ph.D. in natural resource management. This degree would enable me to combine a teaching career with advising business and government on natural resource management issues. Teaching college students is more than a one-way channel; I would also learn from their questions like my professors have from mine. In advising business and government, I can help them strike a balance between economic and environmental concerns. GIS will be a useful tool in helping me give them crucial information.

I have enjoyed an interdisciplinary approach in my environmental studies major and become fascinated by the clash between social interests, especially economics, and environmental needs. I pursued an additional major in economics to better understand this conflict. Furthermore, my work for the NPS will train me in the latest techniques in natural resource management. I would like to continue exploring this clash and resource management in the School of Environmental Studies. Ultimately, I would like to teach and work in natural resource management. Ideally, I would like to find ways for allowing development while preventing the burning of beautiful and valuable eco-systems like the Pantanal Wetland.

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paisley
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沙发

发表于 2004-8-29 15:30:21 |只看该作者

MSE in Environmental Engineering

　　　　I plan to pursue an M.S.E. degree in Environmental Engineering with an emphasis in water quality control engineering. Ever since I was 16 years old, I knew I wanted to be an environmental engineer. When I obtain my B.S.degree in May, that dream will be fulfilled. However, I still feel I have so much more to learn about the field of water quality engineering. The pursuit of an M.S.E.itself will garner more knowledge. But equally important is the flexibility and mobility such a degree allows me in the workplace. Companies offer higher educated employees more opportunities to explore and expand the breadth of their expertise. I want to be able to continue learning throughout my career. My learning experience at the University of Illinois was a rich one. After the first two years of prerequisites and general requirements I was ready to truly begin pursuing my "chosen path." I knew after my first introductory environmental engineering class that I was in the right field and my dream would become reality. While I found air quality and solid waste management interesting, it was water quality that truly stimulated my interest. After a variety of classes regarding water quality processing, ecotoxicological modeling in receiving waters, hydro-systems, groundwater modeling, etc., I realize I need to learn more. Water is the most important natural resource a vital area can have and maintaining its quality is as intriguing as it is important. I have had an opportunity to assist in research to improve wastewater quality. I am an undergraduate laboratory assistant for a doctoral student, Christian Greenfield, who is researching the chemical modification of activated carbon. The work I'm performing involves the systematic variation of the chemistry on activated carbon by exposing granular, powdered, or fibrous carbon samples to a series of reagents and temperatures in order to vary the acidity, basicity, or nitrogen content of those samples. While performing the usual duties of buffer preparation, glassware cleaning, errands, etc., I have also performed activation runs, surface area and pore size distribution analyses, and adsorption analyses. This project has broadened my understanding of water chemistry, carbon's physical and chemical properties, the experimentation process, and the life of post-secondary students! I am fully aware of the hard work and time necessary to make a project successful. I am ready to begin the life of a graduate student. I hope to become a research assistant to improve my knowledge of water quality beyond course work. I believe the University of Michigan, which provides great facilities, employs notable faculty, and possesses a distinguished reputation is the next step in the pursuit of my dream.

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我说人生哪，如果赏过一回痛哭淋漓的风景，写一篇杜鹃啼血的文章，与一个赏心悦目的人错肩，也就够了。不要收藏美、钤印美，让美随风而逝。生命最清醉的时候，是将万里长江视为一匹白绢，裂帛。(简桢)

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paisley
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板凳

发表于 2004-8-29 15:31:07 |只看该作者

MS in Environmental Engineering

　　I wish to enter the Environmental Engineering and Science program at the University of Richmond (UR) and obtain a Master of Science degree in Environmental Engineering. I am specifically interested in bioremediation of hazardous waste, and in all aspects of applied microbiology. As an undergraduate in the same program, I have had the opportunity to participate in several research projects at UR and elsewhere. Since the first semester of my freshman year in college, I have wanted to be a professor of environmental engineering. I was introduced to research the summer after I graduated from high school. The mechanical engineering department at UR was sponsoring a summer high school internship program and I was able to work closely with professor Ty Cable, who was studying the city of Savoy's curbside recycling program. I collected data, analyzed it, and designed part of a process to mechanically sort recyclable containers. I attended the Conference on Solid Waste Research and Technology in Churchville, PA, with Dr. Cable the following fall (1991) and was the first author on the abstract and research presentation. I chose to enter the environmental engineering program in the civil engineering department because I enjoyed chemistry and biology. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in academic research, but I found living biological systems much more interesting than the mechanical systems I studied with Dr. Cable. Bioremediation using microorganisms seemed to be the perfect thing for me to study. The summer after my freshman year, I worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Environmental Engineering and Science program at the University of Washington in Seattle with professor H. M. Lilly. I had my own project and also spent much time with the graduate students there, learning about their research. I have since spent two more summer in Seattle, working with Dr. Lilly and his colleagues, Drs. S. Bryce and P. Miller. I have worked on several different projects, the most recent being the most interesting: this past summer I designed and built a completely mixed bioremediation reactor, maintained an aerobic mixed culture of microorganisms, and conducted kinetic studies on its ability to degrade benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylenes. As a result of my summer work in Seattle, I have considerable experience working in the laboratory and I am very familiar with certain analytical instruments, such as flame ionization detectors(FIDs) and thermal conductivity detectors(TCDs).

　　During the school years, I have paid for roughly one third of my education by working part time at various jobs. Most recently, I worked for professor D. Houseman in the civil engineering department at UR during my junior year as an hourly lab assistant. As a result, in January 1994 I began to work on an independent study project which is currently continuing. With Dr. Houseman's guidance, I hope to isolate and characterize a microorganism from a mixed culture capable of degrading dichloromethane under anaerobic conditions. The project has enabled me to apply what I have learned in the extra course work I have done in chemistry, microbiology, and biochemistry. I hope to continue with this project, perhaps for my master's thesis. I also want to pursue, with help from Dr. Lilly, the use of molecular biological techniques to study the microorganism once it is isolated. From all of this research experience I have learned that I would not be happy working outside an academic research environment. Since I was young, I wanted to be a professor. I grew up in Richmond, immersed in an academic lifestyle because my father is a professor at UR. Thus, I plan to follow my master's degree with a Ph.D. in environmental engineering and then look for a faculty position in the areas of applied microbiology or environmental engineering.

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paisley
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地板

发表于 2004-8-29 15:31:47 |只看该作者

Since the release of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in the 1960's, mankind has expanded its quest to come to grips with the competing virtues of human economic entropy and of maintaining the integrity and diversity of the natural environment. As awareness of environmental degradation has increased, so has the realization of the complexity of interconnected webs of relationships among organisms and the physical and chemical environment. With this awareness, we have also come to realize that environmental problems are not easily fixed by simply focusing on a single problem with no analysis of other issues. This tendency to blindly solve environmental problems without understanding the full complexity of the problem was evident in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) recent mandate that Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) be a required ingredient in gasoline formulas with the goal of increasing combustion efficiency. A fuel oxygenate, MTBE enhances the octane in gasoline and decreases carbon monoxide emission by increasing burning efficiencies. In its haste to declare MTBE as a required ingredient in gasoline, the EPA failed to consider a basic chemical property of MTBE and its long-term effects upon the environment. Because MTBE is highly water-soluble, it dissolves in water, leading to higher concentrations of MTBE in many lakes in the California Sierra Nevada mountains and in many groundwater supplies. Hence, by addressing only one component of a system separately, the EPA failed to see the ramifications of our apparent solution. This myopic approach to environmental remediation commonly subverts our good intentions to solve environmental problems and demonstrates a lack of understanding of how inter-related systems work.

　　It is my goal to aid in our understanding of environmental pollution on a global scale by not only researching the fate and transport of contaminants, but also by analyzing how our current philosophies and policies affect these problems. By applying an interdisciplinary approach to both the specific scientific and technical aspects of a problem and by thoroughly analyzing social and cultural factors, I believe I can more effectively analyze the true extent of our pollution problem and help to determine an appropriate response.

　　In preparation for this work, my undergraduate degree in environmental studies has provided me with a solid foundation in both the sciences and state and federal environmental policy. My undergraduate emphasis in hazardous materials has given me a broad knowledge of the types of chemical releases common in both developed and undeveloped countries and their chemical and physical effects upon the environment. Through graduate and post-graduate research, I hope to further enhance this knowledge by studying the effects of chemicals commonly used in industry cycles on specific environmental compartments such as bay wetlands and partitioning to other compartments such as XXX. In my graduate study, I would also like to expand my undergraduate study of environmental law by increasing my knowledge of the law to the area of land use and its relationship to contaminant fate and transport.

　　In addition to my academic background, I believe that my work experience will also play a key role in helping me find success in my graduate and post-graduate studies. For the last ten years I have held a number of management positions in business. While these positions have not specifically related to environmental work, the experience has provided me with invaluable insight into how both large and small companies operate. The perspective of business management is badly needed in the environmental field where time and again we discover that environmental compliance can best be achieved by understanding business practices and tailoring compliance measures so that companies can remain profitable and be environmentally responsible. In addition to understanding the perspectives of business management, my work experience has provided me with other skills that will contribute to my success in the graduate program. In 1986, I founded a retail product/services company, Bay Area Audio, which specialized in commercial media center design and installation. As the company's president over a six-year period, I was responsible for managing all aspects of operations, including marketing and customer relations. This experience provided me with the opportunity to conduct market research to cultivate new customers, engage in media relations, grow profitability while maintaining budget accountability, and manage large groups of people. As a result of the marketing campaigns that I developed, revenues increased from $100,000 in 1986 to over $2 million in 1991. I believe the experience in market research and media relations will be particularly helpful in the environmental field since many environmental issues involve public participation. In 1991, I sold my interest in Bay Area Audio to gain experience in the high-technology sector.

　　Since 1991, I have held a number of management positions for computer hardware and software companies. This experience has been invaluable in providing me the opportunity to be involved in leading edge Internet software technology. As the main purpose of the Internet and internet-related software is to enhance communications, I have played a key role in developing products that provide people with one of today's most valuable resources--information. Working in this market has also given me the opportunity to manage large software projects involving dozens of people. Of particular relevance to my pursuit of post-graduate environmental studies, is my experience developing global scale corporate websites for companies such as Silicon Graphics, UltraTech Stepper, and Philips Semiconductors. These projects involved working closely with the particular company's environmental, health, and safety departments to effectively communicate health and safety information to thousands of employees. I believe that the Internet will be an invaluable tool in both the research and implementation of environmental solutions and that my experience in the computer field will prove invaluable towards this end.

　　In conclusion, I believe that I have much to offer San Jose State's graduate environmental studies program. To successfully come to grips with environmental contamination, we must understand how a specific problem fits within a larger framework from both an ecological and social perspective. I believe that the combination of my educational background with my work experience will provide me with the essential tools to substantially contribute to workable and successful solutions. Given the opportunity to pursue graduate work in environmental studies, I will contribute to effectively bringing new information to light on environmental problems and their solutions, accounting for all related cultural, industrial and environmental factors. Overall, I believe that San Jose State can help me achieve my goals by providing the advanced tools and knowledge necessary to focus on environmental problems utilizing an interdisciplinary approach so as to have an overall positive net impact on protecting the environment for generations to come.

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