Aditya Mohan Kunjapur - Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Genetics at Harvard

EDUCATION:  Stratford High School - 2006 University of Texas at Austin, BS in Chemical Engineering MIT, Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering

For my favorite college memories, I enjoyed tutoring in the chemical engineering department but found my summer internship experiences with Shell and ExxonMobil most influential towards my professional development. I interned several times in upstream oil and gas, but I was always interested in renewable energy and chemicals. After UT, I went to grad school at MIT to develop novel bacterial strains that convert renewable sugars into higher value chemicals and into biofuels. Although I received the SPE scholarship for only one year after deciding to stick with my chemical engineering major, I credit the SPE scholarship for connecting me with Shell Oil Company for my first internship the summer before freshman year. I cannot overstate how valuable this experience was. My advice to students is that SPE scholarship recipients should make the most of the industry connections that they receive. Contact me at aditya_kunjapur@hms.harvard.edu.