Congratulations! Bill Mengren Liu was Admitted to the Ph.D. Program of MIT!
Published on: February 3, 2021 | Views: 3196
Bill Mengren Liu, a class of 2021 student from the Sichuan University – Pittsburgh Institute (SCUPI), majoring in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in January 2021. MIT arguably is the world’s best engineering school and admission to its graduate school, especially for international students, is known to be extremely competitive. While we have a number of students studying at top universities, such as Stanford, Berkeley, and Cambridge, Bill Liu became our first student to be admitted directly to the Ph.D. program of MIT. Bill is expected to be awarded a full scholarship from MIT as well.
During his freshman and sophomore years at SCUPI, Bill performed superbly in coursework and actively engaged in undergraduate research with his professors. Most notably, he was the first author for an article entitled, “Experimental Studies on the Welt Mechanism and Electrical Properties of the Inverted BA Doped ZnO Nanoparticles Based Memristor,” that was published in an SCI-indexed journal. In his junior year, he transferred to Cornell University under a dual-degree, 2+2 joint-program, and his scholastic performance at Cornell has been outstanding.
When asked who inspired him, Mr. Liu mentioned that Dean Minking Chyu of SCUPI has greatly influenced and helped him throughout the course of his study. Dean Chyu served as one of his references to MIT. Bill recalled that during the sendoff for the transfers of class 2021, Dean Chyu urged them to learn about and engage with their new communities. Bill said that he appreciated these words and has been doing just that at Cornell.
According to Bill, it took some encouragement for him to apply to MIT. For this he is grateful to Professor TsunZee Mai, SCUPI’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, who inspired him to apply. Bill Liu said, ‘I never thought it would be possible to get accepted by MIT until Professor Mai strongly encouraged me and said that he really believed in me.’ With this motivation, he found that it was truly possible and his dream of being an MIT student came true.
As the first student from SCUPI to be admitted to MIT, Bill Mengren Liu represents a milestone in the development of our Institute. We congratulate Bill’s remarkable accomplishment, and at the same time we should all be proud to have contributed to this success. Go SCUPI!
Text Editor: James McDougall & Fannie Yang