Clear Skies, Healthy Future Anonymous

Growing up in Tianjin, I was accustomed to clear skies and bright sunshine. However, in recent years, due to the increasing number of cars and industries in my hometown, the blue skies from my childhood have been replaced by gray, choking smog. The result of this change is that millions of people, including myself, are now troubled by illnesses related to air pollution. These aggravating conditions have stimulated my passion for safeguarding people from the dangers caused by pollution.

Initially, my passion drove me to enroll in the College of Environmental Science and Engineering in Nankai University. Apart from learning theoretical knowledge on environmental pollution, I entered Professor Wang’s lab to conduct experiments on the transesterification in order to understand pollutants transformation in its natural environment. It was the first time I had experienced a chemical process lasting up to 12 hours, which was far longer than any preliminary research I had previously done. I overcame physical and mental fatigue, and treated the samples well into the night after everyone else had gone home. Through this experiment, I discovered the complexities of the real environment and realized a need to further explore chemical...