“As a student of environmental engineering, I will keep searching, searching for new and alternative energy sources and for new engineering technologies to address environmental problems, to make our world a place of peace where man and nature co-exist.” With those concluding remarks in the speech that I delivered in English as a student representative at the Keynote Ceremony of World Peace Day held in Beijing on September 19, 2004, I received enthusiastic applauses from the U.N. officials, diplomats, international NGO representatives, international journalists, and domestic delegates present at the ceremony. “Thank you for the great speech today,” that was what many international delegates told me when I walked down from the platform and returned to my seat. At that very moment, I was most excited, as well as most proud.

As a matter of fact, the excitement and the pride in learning environmental engineering have informed my entire undergraduate career. That is because, as a future environmental engineer, I will have the knowledge and the expertise to contribute to the solutions to the mounting challenges and even crises posed to humanity by the rapid depletion of natural resources and environmental deteriorations. This excitement and pride now continues and I would like to expand them by undertaking a more advanced program at the University of Stanford. Through your program, I would acquire the academic foundation to make environmental engineering my lifelong pursuit, a pursuit that will perpetuate the excitement and pride that I have long been experiencing.

At the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), I have received systematic training in environmental engineering, one of the strongest disciplines in the university which is ranked top 8 in the most recent nationwide assessment. Over the past three years, I have done extensive coursework (consisting a total of 54 courses). With a satisfactory start in the first academic year, I have kept improving my academic performance, achieving an average GPA of 82/100 in the second year (which ranked me top 4 among 60 students), and 88.6/100 in the third year (ranked top 6). With an overall GPA of 83.3/100, I have done especially a good job in my core courses, scoring over 90/100 in half of the specialized courses in my third year. In some courses whose scores are not so prominent, like 77/100 for Engineering Mechanics, that is the result of the instructor’s harsh grading and the score is actually the highest in the entire class.

Developing a solid foundation through rigorous coursework, I have also sought other means to strengthen my knowledge base. With my sound capacity for self-education, I have read a considerable number of textbooks by western authors, published jointly by Tsinghua University Press and McGraw-Hill. Those books include Introduction to Engineering & the Environment by Edward S. Rubin and Cliff I. Davidson, Environmental Science-A Study of Interrelationships by Eldon D. Enger and Branley F. Smith, and Environmental and Natural Resource Economics by Tom Tietenberg, etc. Those books have served to broaden my horizon beyond textbook knowledge and exposed me to the latest developments in the international academic community.

Having gained a necessary academic foundation, I have participated in research projects in which I have tried to develop my own understanding of environmental engineering and making my own unique contributions. The first is the Production of Hydrogen from Urban Solid Wastes in Beijing, sponsored as a key project by Beijing Municipal Educational Commission (SK102900477). We chose agricultural wastes like sludge and used such approaches as fixed bed pyrolysis, gas chromatograph SP-2100 analysis and measuring the specific levels of the gases H2, CO, CH4, CO2, C2H4. Placing sludge balls inside quartz tube, we first did emptying experiments in which, through programmed temperature, we increased the temperatures to 9500C and collected the released gases into a bag at every 100 degrees. Then we tried various catalysts and determined their dosages. The catalysts featured all the transition metals’ oxides and we tried to maximize the hydrogen production (Fe2O3, 3%). Next, at three levels of constant temperature (7000C, 8000C, 9000C), we used the selected Fe2O3, varied its dosages from 1% to 3% and measured the level that yielded the maximum amount of hydrogen. The lowest level of pyrolysis temperature means the least consumption of energy. Our next step is to calculate its activation energy and find the best catalyst and pyrolysis temperature. The purpose of our experiments is to search for a new source of clean and effective energy. Though it is inconclusive whether we could ever reach our purpose, this pioneering research is a fascinating example of how environmental engineering deserves my lifelong commitment.

A second major research project has happened in a paper-manufacturing plant in Shandong Province, located in the saline lands in the famous Yellow River Delta. The objective was to achieve ecological restoration and resilience in saline lands and to develop an integrated sustainable pattern of reed-growing and paper-making industry. The research involved the pre-treatment of wastewater from paper making processes or civilian uses, purification of the reed-growing wetlands and the saline lands, wetland restoring, reed-growing industry, paper-making industry—a enclosed sustainable system. In studying the wastewater treatment, we had five sample lands. The wastewater reaches those lands through an oxidation pond, each land with a different hydraulic loading and intermittent water influx. By studying such parameters as PH, COD, BOD, DO, T-N, NH3-N, NO2-N, T-P, and SS, we gained vital statistics concerning the capacity of different wetlands in treating wastewater under different technical conditions. This project has allowed me to gain a new understanding of environmental engineering, how engineering technology can be channeled into economically beneficial directions.

Apart from my research, I have gained practical knowledge and experiences through internships last semester at two leading wastewater treatment plants around Beijing. In particular, I learned about how active sludge contributes to water treatment. I found that the second effluent in China is mostly used as landscape water rather than sanitary water for lack of proper technology and high cost. However, as water is woefully deficient in China, I wish we can develop advanced knowledge and technology in water recycling. Another important discovery I made was the Heat Pump that makes possible the utilization of low temperature heat. By means of reverse carnot cycle, heat can be obtained from the waste water for winter heating and summer cooling, as well as for agricultural cultivation. I found myself considerably fascinated by this technology of turning wastes into useful resources.

Cherishing my career goal of becoming a leading environmental engineer at a top-tier environmental organization in my home country, I am determined to pursue your first-rate graduate program, which offers the most comprehensive education in the environment in the United States. By combining natural sciences, social sciences and design as one shared discipline, your program equips students with tools necessary to tackle increasingly interconnected interdisciplinary problems of the 21st century. As a student from a developing country with relevant backgrounds and practical experiences, I am particularly interested in sustainable systems and its sub-branch “sustainable production and consumption”. I expect to gain expertise in systems analysis techniques with a wide range of applications, including renewable energy, water infrastructure, and sustainable mobility. Another distinguishing feature of your program is its opportunity for a dual degree, in my case an economics program. I not only wish to solve technical problems as an engineer but also to take up management in environmental strategy and in environmental economics. With your unparalleled breadth and depth, Michigan University will fully satisfy my learning needs and my career aspirations. In the near future, environmental protection will become a major industry in China and I hope to be a bridge between advanced western ideas and technologies and China’s environmental practices. In this way, I can fulfill the pledge I made on the World Peace Day—to make our world a place of peace and harmony where man and nature can co-exist.

嘉文博译郑重声明：