Julius Edson, Ph.D. Student

Julius Edson, Ph.D. Student

The objective of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is to promote science by giving research grants to scientific laboratories throughout the United States. NSF has several research grants one of them is the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSFGRF). This fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding under-represented entering graduate students who are perusing either a master’s or doctoral degree in Life Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics. The GRFP provides three years of paid tuition and stipend for their graduate education.

One outstanding 2013 GRFP recipient is Julius Edson, a second year Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Julius Edson is a member of American Institute of ChemicalEngineers, National Society of Black Engineers and former recipient of Graduate Assistance inAreas of National Need Fellowship (GAANN).

Among his achievements include: research publications, invited research talks, poster presentations, and several fellowships and awards. Edson’s passion for science and yearning for knowledge propelled him to go around the world to do research. He had the opportunity to travel to Colombia, Austria and Sweden where he did research for three summers. Once he relocated to the United States he learned about electrochemistry, and techniques in biomaterials and corrosion science. However, it was not an easy journey.

Julius was born in Lagos, Nigeria and moved to the United States at the age of seven. Julius’ interest in Science developed early on when he was in middle school and it became his favorite topic in class. As he says it was, “The only topic that I never struggled to stay awake.” Later on, he pursed Biology and Chemistry hoping to go to Medical School and become a surgeon. However, his interest for Nanotechnology stirred within him and wanted to combine it with medicine.

Julius majored in Chemical Engineering at City College of New York.  Here, he had the opportunity to do research in Chemical Engineering. As he mentions, “I was looking into research labs in undergrad, I stumbled into my undergrad mentor's lab and ended up changing my track [from medicine] to Chemical Engineering.” It is not usual to find students who will switch from medicine (MD) to Science (Ph.D), in general is the other way around. Most college students have an interest in pursuing medicine, and they start doing research with the purpose of attending medical school. Nonetheless, Julius’ intent was different.

This is when he decided to study Chemical Engineering, although with limited knowledge of what the field consisted of. Even though he’s encountered moments where people question what he does exactly, Julius enjoys the ability to “dabble in everything.” With this he means that Chemical Engineering is an interdisciplinary field that allows him to combine certain aspects of different disciplines. To illustrate this better for example, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Computer Engineering, specialize in one particular area and Julius found it more suitable for him to not follow any of those branches in Engineering.

It is normal for college students to experience some hardship in order to receive their degrees. As it was the case for Julius, he experienced a financial burden throughout his education but “what college student doesn’t have those nowadays?” Nevertheless, one of his biggest hurdles was Mathematics. He was excellent in all Biology and Chemistry courses he took yet he found that Math was not his strength. He overcame that obstacle after some time, however, and he eventually “fell in love!” with Math.

Julius has a profound passion, positive attitude and willingness to move forward, which encourage him to continue in Science. His recommendation to other students is, “go for it! It is one career path that I do not see a negative. With a technical degree, there are so many options available to you, and you can carve your own path.”

Julius next goal is to obtain his Ph.D Degree in Chemical Engineering with the hopes of establishing a biotechnology company.

To learn more about Chemical Engineering program at UC-Irvine.