cytochrome
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Hi guys. My long term goals including going to grad school and going into academia.
I'm at a point in my undergrad curriculum where I need to declare a major for sure. I've jumped around a lot in the past 2 years between chemistry, math, physics, and chemical engineering. My first 2 research experiences were in biophysics, which I loved. I'm now doing molecular modeling in the chemE department, which I love even more.INTERESTS
I have a broad research interest that includes predicting macroscopic phenomena via microscopic structure, as well as relating these two things. I'm interested in this concept applied to fluids, solids, macromolecules, etc... If someone wants any material with any property, I want to be able to predict what this material consists of by computations at the molecular level. For example, creating better optical materials, biomaterials, magnetic materials, energetic materials, semiconductors, etc... I'm interested in all of these things but particularly in the theoretical design of these materials using physical principles. Basically, I want to create better ways theoretically determine the components (atoms, molecules, etc.) for a material, fluid, or macromolecule of any given property. Making connections between the microscopic and macroscopic world is of huge interest, as well as the mesoscopic length where the dominance of quantum and classical effects become blurred.My Thoughts
Given my huge obsession with materials, I think Materials Science and Engineering is an obvious choice. Research in this field doesn't seem too fundamental, however, so I was thinking condensed matter physics. Chemical engineering is too concerned with economically producing mass amounts of materials and is not very science based... Physical chemistry, however, is just plain awesome in my opinion.
Can someone please view my interests and let me know what academic major and/or graduate program would be best suited for me? Thanks for your time.
I'm at a point in my undergrad curriculum where I need to declare a major for sure. I've jumped around a lot in the past 2 years between chemistry, math, physics, and chemical engineering. My first 2 research experiences were in biophysics, which I loved. I'm now doing molecular modeling in the chemE department, which I love even more.INTERESTS
I have a broad research interest that includes predicting macroscopic phenomena via microscopic structure, as well as relating these two things. I'm interested in this concept applied to fluids, solids, macromolecules, etc... If someone wants any material with any property, I want to be able to predict what this material consists of by computations at the molecular level. For example, creating better optical materials, biomaterials, magnetic materials, energetic materials, semiconductors, etc... I'm interested in all of these things but particularly in the theoretical design of these materials using physical principles. Basically, I want to create better ways theoretically determine the components (atoms, molecules, etc.) for a material, fluid, or macromolecule of any given property. Making connections between the microscopic and macroscopic world is of huge interest, as well as the mesoscopic length where the dominance of quantum and classical effects become blurred.My Thoughts
Given my huge obsession with materials, I think Materials Science and Engineering is an obvious choice. Research in this field doesn't seem too fundamental, however, so I was thinking condensed matter physics. Chemical engineering is too concerned with economically producing mass amounts of materials and is not very science based... Physical chemistry, however, is just plain awesome in my opinion.
Can someone please view my interests and let me know what academic major and/or graduate program would be best suited for me? Thanks for your time.