Most important while completing these questions is that you be sincere and enjoy yourself

Most important while completing these questions is that you be sincere and enjoy yourself

1. Perform a Self-Inventory of Your Unique Experiences, Major Influences, and Abilities

i. What attracts you to this particular school?

• Rice atmosphere — more professors, less stus — good for focusing on acadamic work. Also the experienment condition and funding for projects.

ii. Are there any specific faculty members at this academic institution whose work interests you?

• Yes, prof Huang. Also Kono and Marsh’s work impress me about how they are connected with students.

iii. What specifically do you hope to gain from the academic program to which you are applying?

• The ability to individially operate a project and study the quantum materials. Also how to apply my experience of setting up optical paths to the commercial instruments to solve problems which is beneficial to my future career. (about the acadamic courses?)

iv. What are your career aspirations, and how can this academic program help you to reach them?

• idk… how the future will be? :cry:

v. What is your dream job? What would you ideally like to be doing in 5 years? 10? 20?

• My dream job is optical engineener and quantum optical materials developer. In 5 years, I want to be a Postdoc to continue research on the quantum optics. I want to do some optical intruments developing as a associate professor in 10 years. In 20 years, I want to do some experienmental work

vi. What personal characteristicsdo you possess that would enhance your prospects for success in the field or profession? Is there a way to demonstrate or document that you have these characteristics?

• Intellectual Ability–Already taken graduate courses and get a good score(Quantum Optics…)
• Creativity– As the PL/Raman data need to be processed manually, I developed 2 softwares to help process it which save much time for our group people.
• Self-motivated– The summer research is done by myself without the professor
• Being Organized– Calendar to do things a day(can be found in my github page)
• Compromise (Change? Adaptaion?) – In USTC I do Fiber Cavity QED, in summer research I do 2D…
• Risk Taking – solve many problems about the use of Instruments and help update the system to catch atoms
• Leadership – lead the Robogame 2023 and the construction of vaccum system
• Initiative – design control circuts and pre-treat the optical fiber, design an equipment to help treat(pictrue)

vii. What skills (leadership, communicative, analytical, for example) do you possess? As in the previous question, strive to “show” rather than “tell”.

• Easy going
• Optimism
• Hard-working
• Enthusiasm

viii. Why might you be a stronger candidate for graduate school–and more successful and effective in the profession or field–than other applicants?

• Have better ability to get into work and easy to be customed to the life in Houston (already join half year)
• Strong ability in setting up optical paths (set the optical system for 2 years)
• Hard working and creative, also can use many programming languages, can create some apps for other to use

ix. What do you have to offer the school-to your fellow students, to the faculty, to the broader community?

• idk

x. Why do you think you will succeed in this academic program?

• I already know what I can do to improve the experiment and what I should aim for in the program, I believe I can gain much progress in the field with prof.

xi. What are the most compelling reasons you can give for the admissions committee to be interested in you?

• Have better ability to get into work and easy to be customed to the life in Houston (already join half year)
• Have good relationship with prof Huang and Strong ability in setting up optical paths and solve problems in optic for other people
• Self-motivated working.

xii. Why do you think you will be successful in your chosen career?

• I love optics since younger and I want to make some progress in the field.
• Also, I have the ability to deal with problems in many optical path area, and the ability to use much programming languages
• Last, I am self-motivated and easy to adapt a new environment, so the new work won’t be a such problem for me

Background/Accomplishments: Personal

What’s special, unique, distinctive, or impressive about you or your life story? What details of your life (personal or family problems/history, any genuinely notable accomplishments, people or events that have shaped you or influenced your goals) might help the committee better understand you or help set you apart from other applicants?

• Before I went to university, I love computer science so I even learn those university textbooks (like 计算机组成原理，网络安全攻防), and try to use them. However, when I was admitted into USTC, my parents asked me to major in Physics just because the physics subject in USTC is at top2 in China. At first I did not custom in physics and I was lack of fundament in physics compared with my classmates who once took part in the preparation of International Physics Olympiad, so I got bad score in freshmen and lose my hope about learning physics well. However, after taking the experimental course of optics, I understand what I really like to devote in is the discovery of new things and explaination using what I have learned. The love for computer science is just a extracurricular interest in my life. So after that I gradually knew how to study the courses and joined the CAS lab to start my research on Fiber Cavity QED.

xiv. Have you had to overcome any unusual obstacles or hardships (e.g., economic, familial, physical) in your life?

• Something about the optics—fiber treating and optical paths setting.
• Fiber treating: After taking the tasks of fiber treating with Polyimide, I try to design an equipment which has 导轨 and fiber 夹具 on 2 sides, the Polymide 溶液 moving through the fiber. However, the control of the speed of movement, the temperature of the 溶液, the baking time after 涂覆 were parameters which will all affect the quality of fiber. Also, as the equipment I design is different with the commercial instruments, there are no references for me to copy and learn, I have to try different parameters and then test the fiber mode. Finally, After 90 nights and about 200 hours experiment, I found a perfect set of parameters to avoid the
• (60s/moving cycle, 80 degrees of Polyimide temperature, 10 mins 120 degrees bake and 30 mins 150 degrees bake then cold down in oven). Then the work became a patent for my mentor and the processed fiber is already used in our vaccum system which are also processed to be cavities to catch the atoms.

How did you deal with the challenges of moving to the U.S. from your home? Did you experience culture shock? How did you adapt? What was most difficult for you? What aspects of your new home did you enjoy the most?

• First problem is language. Although I passed the TOEFL test and practiced some oral English, I always got confused when talking with native speakers as they may talk at a high speed so that I sometimes could only get limited information. I do not experience culture shock as Mr. John Marsh held many parties to help us adapt the life in Houston and share many experiences to me, which helps me a lot.
• The most difficult thing for me may be the acadamic adaptaion. As in USTC I concentrated my research on Fiber Cavity QED, when I came to SCOPE Lab, I have to learn the operations to 2D materials from zero, what I only can do at first is just fix the optical instruments. After learing some skills like exfoliating, I start my own research.
• Also there are some difficulties about the food…

xvii. If work experiences have consumed significant periods of time during your college years, what have you learned (leadership or managerial skills, for example), and how has the work contributed to your personal growth?

• Hard-working, skill to set up optical paths
• Manageial skills about one project which has limited budgets.
• Make me fall in love with the magic of optics

Background/Accomplishments: Academic

xviii. When did you originally become interested in this field? What have you since learned about it-and about yourself-that has further stimulated your interest and reinforced your conviction that you are well suited to this field? What insights have you gained?

• In my childhood, I love to use some glasses to concentrate the sunlight. Also, I clearly remembered that I asked the queston “why the chopstiks in the water seem to broken” and my parents can’t answer me the reason clearly, so I search the Internet and firstly know what the light beam is. After getting into university, I read a book called LET THERE BE LIGHT which tells the story of light from atoms to galaxies in a easy way instead of multple formulas. This book first let me now what light turly is and how human know and control the light beam, from atoms to galaxies light is everywhere at anytime.

xix. How have you learned about this field-through classes, readings, seminars, work or other experiences, or conversations with people already in the field?

• I learned Optics, Quantum optics, Laser Principle and Technology, Advanced Photon Physics, Fundamentals of Modern Optics, Engineering Optics. I often feel shocked by the math formula that used in processing the light beams such as the Richard-Wolf vector-integral formula. It make the invisible field into the amplitude and phases.
• Also, I’ve talked on a journal club about the Quantum memory in Room temperature, the magic characteristics of the photons and atoms are impressive. I also visited the 上光所 in summer of 2023, the big instruments which can generate over 10 PW impress me a lot. As for talking, I talked with my mentor in USTC and some teachers in different optical field like optical instruments. solid state quantum optics, metasurface optics… Both of them told me that optics is a subject with huge potential and there are many problems in the theroitical area, what I can do is solve these problems and make good progress on the control of photons.

Can you recall a specific incident that convinced you that you had chosen the right career path?

• Last year, after building the vacumm environment and reach a high vacumm rate, we tried to using the laser beam to cold the atoms and catch them in the fiber cavity. At first the system is unstable and the atom move too fast so we can’t catch anything instead of noise. Then we adjust the positon of the optical lattice and make the beam more percisely, we got little 荧光信号 from the atoms, which means that some atoms have passed the aim area but the volecity is still so high that the beams in the cavity cannot hold the atoms. After 2 weeks adjustment, finally we see some strong 荧光信号 in the cavity and we can even see the signal area in our ccd on the pc monitor. At that monment, I knew that I’d chosen the right career path of my life. What I really want to do is just find something new in optics and make it controlable using the laser beam (like the single atom or single photons)