To Whom It May Concern:
I am very pleased to write this letter of recommendation to support XXXX’s application for the position of material engineer in Dow. XXXX is one of the dedicated Ph.D. graduates in my group and I strongly support this application and do believe that his academic background and personalities perfectly fit your company’s need.
XXXX Fan had a very impressive academic track record before joining my group. He obtained his B.S. degree in polymer science and engineering from Qingdao University of Science and Technology, whose polymer program ranks Top 5 in China. During his undergraduate study, XXXX won scholarships in three consecutive years. He was involved in a research group since his junior year, showed an avid passion for organic synthesis, especially in polymer synthesis. In his senior year, he published a co-author journal paper, which further distinguished him from his peers. XXXX later pursued his M.S. degree in chemistry at SUNY Stony Brook where he also received further training in organic synthesis and characterization, building up a solid knowledge base for his Ph.D. study. His excellent performance in academia made him competitive among his peers, and six Ph.D. programs in the United States, including The Ohio State University (OSU), gave him offers to join in.
After joining my group at OSU, XXXX impressed me consistently through his academic enthusiasm and productivity. He came to my group nearly one and a half months ahead of the start of a new semester to prepare for his project. During that period, he handled the majority of skills and techniques required in my group which largely facilitated his output in the project. Due to his background knowledge in chemistry, XXXX contributed to the synthesis of small organic molecules and polymers in our group, his and the projects of his colleagues. I am happy that he could think and work independently to figure out the tricks in the synthesis. More importantly, he was always delighted to share this experience with his colleagues, helping others out whenever necessary. Of course, he encountered some challenges in subjects he is not good at. I remembered his attempts to imaging the cell cultured on the thermosensitive hydrogel, which is quite different from traditional frozen tissue IHC. XXXX had been working on this part for a few months before he finally obtained clear and reasonable images. During this period, I am thrilled with his persistence in resolving the tough problems using innovative approaches. After discussing with some peers, looking up related literature and many different experiments, he finally developed a unique method to image the cell on a special substrate. XXXX is now a confocal microscopy expert who is good at imaging the cell in/on various matrix/substrate.
I am always confident to ask XXXX to train my new students. Being an ambitious researcher, he has published five first-author journal papers and four co-author publications. Due to the long-period experimental cycle of animal surgery, he has another two upcoming papers to be published soon. This number proves that XXXX is highly productive among graduate students who are able to finish a Ph.D. degree in four years.
The achievement of XXXX could be attributed not only to his dedication to research work but also to his well-cultured personality and habits. To begin with, XXXX is a natural leader, delegating with authority and competence in my group. He is at his best at high stress, deadline-driven environments, and great at getting his colleagues fully involved to achieve the best result possible. That is why he can always show his leadership impact in the research group when it counts, such as project proposal and manuscript submission deadlines. Second, XXXX is a responsible person. He always finishes the tasks assigned to him before their deadlines. Even with some subjective difficulties, such as extreme weather, limited time, and health issue, he was also able to overcome them with his great efforts. For some tasks, such as lab manager’s work and summer session lecturer that were not specifically assigned directly to him, he voluntarily takes them without any hesitations. Third, XXXX is a hardworking person. As mentioned earlier, he was an early bird in the lab at the beginning of his Ph.D. study, which enabled him to catch up with his peers who are already senior in the field. I personally value this about him very much since it is necessary for graduate students when they need to study in an unfamiliar field. Since biomaterial is an interdisciplinary field that requires XXXX to collaborate with the groups that have expertise in molecular biology, he was always able to deal with collaborators harmoniously in a cross-functional team, and proceed with the project in a positive direction. Even after the group collaboration, he still keeps the connections to these people, as doing that is beneficial for his learning and working process.
XXXX is truly an exceptional Ph.D. graduate who possesses a solid background in polymer science, strong research ability, and a nice personality. I am totally confident that he will work and perform excellently in Dow given his previous performance in my group. Considering his motivation and ability to handle multiple commitments, I have no doubt that XXXX will engage this work with the same vigor with which he undertook his previous projects. I am looking forward to the exciting experience and skills he will gain in your organization if he is employed. I am also eager to see how his expertise in polymer science will contribute to your company. I strongly recommend him for this job position. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need additional information about him.
Best regards,
