Motivation Monday

Get to know Katie Sun, a first year PhD student in MSE, from Marlboro, New Jersey. Katie chose MSE because of the potential in contributing to the sustainability of manufactured materials. Her undergraduate freshman year, Katie went to a talk by Dr. Birnie who spoke of his advancements made in the solar cell field and met other undergraduate upperclassmen who were majoring in MSE who highlighted the diversity of classes they had taken. Katie identified with both the research and the people and loved how the field was so broad yet focused at the same time, and was hooked from that point on.

Katie is already enjoying learning about more MSE concepts, which make the world she interacts with become more interesting. There is so much more to see and understand than meets the eye. She’s been impressed to discover the intersectionality of the field. Originally, she thought it would only be metals and ceramics focused, but is learning the materials we study are everywhere and there is a place for a materials science engineer in any industry or academic field. Katie also thinks that everyone she has met so far in the department is just the sweetest human being!

On Sundays, you can find Katie sleeping in until an ungodly hour, binging a Netflix show, and mentally preparing for the week ahead. She may be seen at local grocery stores, rock climbing, or cooking. However, more recently her Sunday night activity has been tackling Thermodynamics homework.