Motivation Letter

I am writing to apply for Schindler’s Foundations financial support for doing my master’s thesis in MIT as a student of Materials Science and Engineering department of EPFL. I am originally from Iran and currently I am residing at Chemin des Berges 12, #231, 1022 Chavannes-pres-Renens, Switzerland.

It was during the first bachelor courses when I noticed that Materials Science and Engineering is truly my field of interest. It was interesting for me that I could correlate my observations in real life to what I was learning in classes about the reasons of materials behavior and characteristics in the atomic scale. I also believe that studying in the University of Tehran, which is the best in engineering in Iran and its vibrant scientific atmosphere played a huge role in developing my interest. This enthusiasm along with my hard work resulted in prosperous years. I graduated among top students in my class and published one international conference paper as the first author, which was not common among my peers.

After getting my bachelor’s degree I decided to continue to do my master’s studies in EPFL to take advantage of its outstanding faculty and well-equipped research facilities. During the past years in EPFL, I tried to grasp every opportunity to do research in different fields. Besides the 2 semester projects, which are obligatory for all students, and one project for my minor in Energy, I also worked as a research assistant in Laboratory of Powder Technology and as an intern in Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials.

Among all these researches, the project on semiconductor materials was the most fruitful in my point of view. In this project I tried to realize a modified method for fabricating arrays of holes, which later are used to grow semiconductor nanowires on top of them. This method is less expensive and faster comparing to other common methods; so much larger arrays can be produced in a practical manner. This new approach was proposed by another group, but it had not yet been developed in EPFL. As a matter of fact, at first everybody was skeptical that I could achieve such goal in the 4-month period of project, specially considering that I should have been trained on various equipment. But at the end I managed to produce arrays 900 times larger than conventional ones in shorter amount of time. Realizing such thing independently and despite the belief of the others made me gain confidence and thought me very essential points about doing research, like how I should learn from the mistakes and stay motivated and focused even after failures until I succeed. Moreover, I got interested in semiconductor nanowires so I intend to do my master project in the same area in the group of professor Gradecak in MIT and under supervision of professor Fontcuberta i Morral as my advisor in EPFL.

I believe that doing my master project in MIT will make it possible for me to meet wonderful professional people whose scientific knowledge and experience will be of great value and I also believe that Schindler’s support will ease some difficulties and will be a significant help towards achieving my academic goals and realizing my dreams. I understand that I will be considered a late applicant since my master project will start in August, but I didn’t have the chance to apply to Schindler Foundation sooner because the process of applying to MIT hadn’t been finalized until recently. Therefore, I would be grateful if you could take this unintentional circumstance into account and if you could give my application your most favorable consideration.

Sincerely yours, Amirreza Kiani

Amirreza Kiani

1. Personal Information - Date and Place of birth: July 23rd 1987-Tehran, Iran - Citizenship: Iranian - Marital status: Single - Current address: Chemin des Berges 12/231, Chavannes-Pres-Renens, 1022, Switzerland - Email: amirreza.kiani@epfl.ch

2. Education Master of science student in Materials Science and Engineering; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Bachelor of Science in Metallurgy and Materials Science

University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran GPA 15.86/20

3. Experience • Semiconductor Materials Laboratory (LMSC) of EPFL (March 2011- present) - Developing a pattern for nanowire growth using phase-shift lithography • Powder Technology Laboratory (LTP) of EPFL (November 2011- December 2011) - Investigating the effect of counter ions on the morphology of portlandite • Powder Technology Laboratory (LTP) of EPFL (July 2011- August 2011)

- Synthesis of transparent polycrystalline alumina - Portlandite precipitation and effect of counter ions on its morphology - Became familiar with TGA, specific surface area and particle size measurements

• Atmosphere Co. (summer internship) (July 2008- September 2008) - Familiar with the fundamental of casting process specifically for Aluminum and Cast Iron in a

foundry with 4-ton capacity furnace - Assisted in organizing casting specifications and standards for automotive applications

4. Projects - Characterization of performance and materials of micro solid oxide fuel cells (Master semester

project II) - Interaction of SuperParamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticle (SPION) with selected proteins

(Master semester project I) - Research on the effect of Ca and Sr addition on the microstructure, grain size and mechanical

properties of AZ91 magnesium alloy (Bachelor thesis)

5. Language - Farsi (Persian): Native language; English: Fluent; French: Beginner

6. Publication - Kiani, M. Emamy, E. Fadaei and S. Ghannadi, “Effects of Strontium and Calcium on the

Microstructure and Grain Size of Cast AZ91 Magnesium Alloy”, Advanced Materials Research Vols. 264-265 (2011) pp 789-794 (available on www.scientific.net)

August 2012, Lausanne

Detailed Budget !The following table shows the list of basic expenses for 2010-2011 academic year for a single visiting student in MIT. The fees are extracted from official website of university:

http://gsc.mit.edu/programs-initiatives/col/ http://web.mit.edu/sfs/afford/graduate_student_expenses.html Moreover, it should be noted that there is no other source of funding available. !!

Registration Fees* $2,700 Housing (off-campus)** $13,875

Student Extended Insurance Plan $1,848 Taxes $3,128

Round-trip Flight $1000 Visa Application Fees $324 Local Transportation $2,186

Meals $4,500 Total $29,561

* Visiting students are exempted from paying the tuition fee; instead they should pay this amount of registration fee. ** As a visiting student, I am not entitled to on-campus housing.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building 13–5094 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139–4307

Silvija Gradečak Thomas Lord Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

Department of Materials Science & Engineering

Phone 617–253–9896 Email gradecak@mit.edu http://web.mit.edu/gradecakgroup/

1

May 21st, 2012

To Whom It May Concern:

With this letter, I am confirming that Mr. Amirreza Kiani will be visiting my laboratory at MIT for the period of August 15th 2012 until May 15th 2013. During this period, he will be working on a project focusing on patterning of metal seed particles used for the growth of semiconductor nanowires for applications in photovoltaics. The project will combine advanced nanofabrication techniques to achieve well-controlled arrays of particles, growth of GaAs- and GaN-based nanowires using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, and solar cell device fabrication. The work performed by Mr. Kiani at MIT will be used toward obtaining his masters degree at EPFL, and is collaborative effort between the Gradecak group at MIT and the group of Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral from EPFL.

MIT provides unique research environment and the entire research infrastructure needed for the project will be secured in the Gradecak laboratory and at MIT’s shared facilities. However, no financial support is available for Mr. Kiani’s stipend or research expenses at the moment. During his visit, together with Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, I will provide research and academic guidance to Mr. Kiani.

Please do not hesistate to contact me should you have further questions. Sincerely,

Silvija Gradečak