Dear applicant,Because your Statement of Purpose is an important part of your graduate school application, you will want to make sure it is well written. If you haven't completed your Statement of Purpose yet, the following exercise will help you customiz

Statement of Purpose

As a secondary student, I was brainwashed that Chemistry was too abstract, until I came across a wonderful teacher, Mr. Afolabi, who through his teaching methodology opened my eyes to the beauty of Chemistry and that everyday activity is ubiquitously Chemistry; no wonders these activities in our daily house chores are carried out efficiently. No chemist can understand all the minute details of Chemistry but for a researcher to be objective, meticulous, and innovative, he needs to explore some other gargantuan laboratory of the universe. Thus, the motivation behind it was to learn Chemistry in the journey of education with one of the best institutions in Nigeria – University of Ilorin.

The four years spent during undergraduate degree had a happy ending when I graduated with second class upper division (82.0%) as one of the best students in my Department and this actually prompted me to apply for a MSc degree in Environmental Chemistry at the University of Lagos where I built on the successes recorded in the undergraduate and also came out in flying colours. Tenacity to know more and obedient to good mentors kept me going in the journey to obtain MSc Environmental Chemistry degree in the year 2017 with a distinction grade (92.8%).

I researched on environmental remediation of water bodies polluted by endemic molluscs – schistosomiasis. I was fortunate to have Emeritus Professor Modupe Ogunlesi to supervise my work at the master’s level. She was very generous to share her time and overseeing my work in “GC-MS analyses of essentials oils from Terminalia mollis, Polygonum lanigerum and others which are used in the management of schistosomiasis”. The essential oil from these medicinal plants has been found by other researchers to exhibit molluscicidal activity. I was meticulous to carry out extractions in two modes – an hourly extraction and a four-hours stretch extraction. Volatile components of the essential oil that are not found in the four hours stretch were present in the hourly extraction mode, giving room for innovation in Organic Chemistry. This work was accepted for poster presentation at the Pittcon 2019 Conference and Expo Pennsylvania Convention Centre.

The two years’ experience in the natural product laboratory of Professor Ogunlesi has exposed me to different methods of extraction of essential oil, laboratory equipment and analyses. I am objective at reporting data and adept at handling GC-MS, HPLC, H-NMR, MS, IR spectrometry among others.

Professors Bram Axelrod, Mingji Dai, and Herman Sintim focus on synthesis of complex glycoproteins, natural products, and oligosaccharides of importance in immunology, diabetes, and cancers diseases. I will be glad to continue my research in natural products Chemistry, screening of medicinal plants by extracting essential oils that are useful in food packaging industry, chemical synthesis of natural products which have therapeutic effects on colorectal cancer, diabetes and male infertility diseases which are prevalent among young Nigerians. However, I am open to diversity and / or collaboration with Biologists, Biochemists, Clinicians and Engineers to carryout research in interdisciplinary projects. I would be delighted to join the groups of the mentioned faculty members as they have worked in their laboratories to ameliorate the worsening rate of cancers, diabetes, and other infectious diseases and ultimately improve human health globally.

To achieve my goal of becoming a renowned and innovative Chemist, I wish to pursue research work leading to PhD degree in Organic Chemistry at Purdue University.

I partook in many communal activities but they never affected my good results. For example, I was the returning officer in the 2015 General Election held in Nigeria; I organized free Computer training for young folks in my neighbouhood; and also joined other colleagues in health awareness and treatment of waste management in a village in Kwara State.

Purdue is celebrating 150 years of Giant Leaps. She has Chemistry faculty as one of the founding programs, with such vast experience in chemical education, I have long yearn for partaking in the ever growing quality of education at the West Lafayette Campus. The world moves forward and exhilarated when we contribute our quota to it; disseminating the new knowledge acquired from Purdue to the world and Africa to be specific will go a long way in propagating the good work of Chemistry Department at Purdue and hence, makes me a better Ambassador of her.

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