I had always anticipated studying at a research institution overseas after completing my bachelor’s degree. I wanted to observe the difference in techniques and acquire new skills that would be beyond what I learned as an undergraduate majoring in ceramic engineering. International exchange is common among many institutions and serves to share new innovations and ideas and promote good relations between the institutions.

Last summer I worked as an undergraduate research assistant for Dr. Yiquan Wu at Alfred University, and had the pleasure of joining Dr. Wang Guo’s and Dr. Jian Chen’s research group at the Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (FJIRSM) at the Chinese Academy of Science in China through an educational program named Collaborative Exchange Research and Materials in Ceramic Sciences, or CERAMICS.