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More about Chuang-Chung (Justin) Lee |
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I was born and grew up in central Taiwan speaking Mandarin and
Taiwanese. Most of my family still lives there, thousands of miles
away from where I am. Being so far
away from home for a long time isn’t something easy. Yet I get used to it anyhow, trying to fit
in new environment at each stage of life. Since chemistry was my favorite subject in high school and
there are lots of engineers in my family, I chose chemical engineering as my
major. After finishing my high school
in Enrolled in the chemical
engineering department at NTU, I started my fresh and colorful journey as
a chemical engineer. As most Chemes
have experienced, we had the most intense coursework compared to other
science or engineering disciplines.
Yet as proven afterwards, the efforts I put in learning those
materials do pay off. First, the
excellence in the Cheme core courses earned me an impressive transcript and
in turn obtained admissions from several top graduate programs in the After graduating from NTU, I joined Taiwanese air force as a telecommunication
corporal for two years. Though tough and
time-consuming, life in the military did teach me quite a lot about life in
real society. There were stress,
anxiety and rigorous hierarchy yet as well as loyalty, cooperation, and
friendship. From hindsight, I felt
honored and lucky having serving my country for two years. Two years away from school surprisingly
restructured my brain and got me ready for further advanced education. I still remember the joy that I felt at the moment of
receiving the admission letter from MIT. Yet the excitement was soon killed by
hectic coursework and impossible problem sets. Suddenly I realized getting out of MIT is
as hard as getting in. Different check
points at each stage of graduate student life potentially slow down or stop
the long journey of which the final destination is the graduation ceremony. In my opinion, the best thing about being a Cheme student at MIT is the opportunities
of participating in various top scientific researches. That is, no matter what technological
problem one is dealing with, chances are that there are experts of that area
working in the next building. Thanks
to the generosity of my advisor, Dr. Gregory J. McRae,
I can enjoy the interdisciplinary research between chemical engineering and
neuroscience. Also valuable is the
statistical way of thinking he instilled, which is applicable to a variety of
fields. Also the guidance from Dr. Chi-Sang Poon helps me in strengthening my
background of neuroscience and directs me to the prominent research topic in
this field. Another good thing about MIT is the bountiful linkage
between industry and the school. Practice School
at Cheme, an internship program arranged by the department, is a perfect
example. Also MISTI provides internship opportunities
overseas. I encountered an internship
opening through MIT-Japan program
and work in Kyowa Hakko, |
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