Microbiology Personal Statement

Personal Statement
Adaptation: one of the most important characteristics of an evolving pathogen, and also one of the most valuable skills I learned from constant travel between countries and regions. As the daughter of a military pilot, moving into new “homes” every three to four years inevitably made education an uphill climb, but rich and unique global experiences forged a deep-seated drive to think and act on the level of international communities.
Like flint against steel, this innate urge to inspire population-wide changes, combined with an insatiable curiosity for the microbial universe, sparked a passionate motivation to explore health and infectious diseases since undergraduate years.

Just as the success of a microbe relies on its ability to constantly adapt for its ultimate goal of survival and spread, my journey in public

After persuading my bewildered senior high school teachers to allow me to set up a controlled habitat investigating how soil microflora changes with different stages of cadaver decomposition, I proceeded the experiment with an initial interest in its forensic applications; but as I engrossed myself in scientific and medical literature upon the project’s completion, my fascination for our unseen microcosm was quickly captivated by a different kind of microbial sleuth.
From the annual reports of influenza to the spillover of zoonotic diseases, old or emerging infections make ever-changing appearances in both media and life; it was, however, the first time I realized how vital signals could be distinguished from the noise, signals that illuminate patterns and pinpoint problems. Eager to learn more about epidemiology, I therefore tested into the Public Health Department in Taipei Medical University.

Proliferation: Building fundamentals in Public Health knowledge and