Shreya Pekety
My name is Shreya and I am a graduating senior majoring in Physics. Outside of school, I love spending time with my friends, baking, and painting. I am very interested in understanding the properties of materials at a nanoscale and how they can be manipulated to advance modern technology. I believe that the intersection and application of the sciences can lead to innovative solutions for relevant problems in a broad range of fields and I am really passionate about contributing to these developments.
Towards the end of my sophomore year, I joined Professor David Cobden’s nanodevice physics lab where I assisted in projects studying 2D materials. Specifically, I worked on studying the dielectric properties of wide-gap insulator Bi2SeO5 by fabricating 2D heterostructure devices and taking transport measurements. Studying the dielectric properties of materials provides us with information that could let us apply a significantly higher displacement field and dopings to samples which would let us access new, exotic phases in various 2D materials. During my time here, I have grown a lot as a researcher and I am very thankful to everyone in my lab for supporting me and providing me with opportunities to learn and succeed in this regard.
I am also very grateful for the funding provided by the Mary Gates Research Scholarship and the Thomas Sedlock Icon Scholarship and the implications this funding has for my research. This funding will allow me to invest time and funds into developing technical skills allowing me to be a more capable and independent researcher. The financial support from this scholarship will also help me invest more time and effort into my project during my last quarter here at UW- potentially allowing us to expand the project and see it through to completion.
Goals
After graduating, I will be attending Columbia University pursuing a PhD in Physics focusing on further studying 2D materials and device fabrication. In the future, I plan to use this expertise to contribute to research regarding nanotechnological developments in relevant fields like clean energy research or biotechnology.
Tips
Be confident in your application and don't undermine your work and the effort you put into it! I also think it's important to not be shy about asking for help and support from those around you when revising and editing your application as it'll only make it stronger.
