STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Applicant's Name: Harshit Patel, Date of Birth: 21/01/1999

Applying for: Ph.D. Program, Department of Chemistry, University of Bern, Albrecht research Group

EARLY MOTIVATION….

My interest in chemistry grew from the simplest childhood memory; growing up in a small rural village in
India, my grandfather and father used to work on the farm. Before sowing, they used to put fertilizers in the
field. I used to ask my father, why are you providing fertilizers to the farmland? Father used to say it would
help in increasing the production of crops. I can remember that day in class when we were first introduced to
the concept of atoms. I got mesmerized that every single object around me whether it be the chalk or the
board or the desk is composed of atoms. After that gradually I came to know about particles even smaller
than atoms. It was hard to believe the existence of atom as I cannot see it, feel it, or touch it. So it was even
harder to accept these sub-atomic particles. During school time, there was a time when I used to like to
memorize things. “Remembering is not a bad thing but you cannot develop a new idea with this until
you understand things properly” these were the words of my teacher Mr. Ashish Singh, he was not a
chemistry teacher but he gave me a new direction. After this I started studying on my own and I found that
chemistry is more interesting than my thinking.

NARTURING THE SUBJECT AT VARIOUS STAGES….

Coming from a family where no one is educated, yet my family dreamed of giving me the best education
because they believe in the philosophy that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use
to change the world.” (Nelson Mandela) I topped the school in class 10th board exam with 81.33% marks.
Due to lack of good teachers and schools in my area, I decided to take admission in government funded
school (BSNV Inter College) for intermediate/10+2, which is 40 km away from my home. I had to cover
this distance every day to attend the classes, 10 km with cycle and rest by train for next 5 years (2 years-
11&12th + 3 years-B.Sc). Still I secured 3rd rank in school among 600+ students with 82.5% (Chemistry-
85%). The teachers here made me interested in chemistry and I understood that chemistry is the only subject
by which we can know all the basic sciences. After that I joined University of Lucknow, premier institution
in the country for undergraduate studies in scientific disciplines, after competing with almost 6428 students
in a rigorous admission test. The decision was further inspired when I came across Professor Naveen K.
Khare in University of Lucknow and his words on the very first day of our class still resonate in my ears
"Life is Chemistry, Chemistry is Life."

In 3rd year of my bachelors, I cracked IIT-JAM national Joint Admission Test for Chemistry; and secured
admission at MNIT Jaipur, one of the leading institutions in India. MNIT Jaipur provides me a great
exposure to learn from well-known professors and gives me the opportunity to expand my horizon of
knowledge by seeking new challenges. As an integral part of course curriculum, I have undertaken Masters’
project under the supervision of Prof. Jyoti Joshi. But then something happened which no one had
imagined, Covid-19. Countries and territories around the world have announced lockdowns in response to
the Covid-19 pandemic. I started my master's project during the lockdown in October 2020 with the
permission of the HOD and my supervisor. This time was very difficult, the whole country was closed,
from hotels to groceries shops, everything was closed. But the excitement of working independently in the
research lab and the stubbornness to do something made everything easy. And I completed the project by the
end of my master’s degree. I have worked on the project titled “Green and chemical approach for
synthesis of Ag2O nanoparticles and their antimicrobial activity” during my master. We not just only
successfully completed the project but also have published my first research paper in the Journal of Sol-Gel
Science and Technology (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-023-06036-7). Apart from the synthesis,
characterization, and lockdown time, the most challenging part of this work was responding to reviewers'
comments and satisfying them. But after hearing the news of paper being accepted, my feet started jumping
like sodium in the rain.

In the 3rd semester of M.Sc, I appeared in CSIR- UGC NET examination and ranked AIR-91 (out of
39081 students) which made me confident in my knowledge and bolster me to pursue my career in higher
research studies. During master’s project and later I’ve been acquainted with Column Chromatography,
Thin-Layer Chromatography, Solvent Extraction, Spectral data interpretation like FT-IR, UV-VIS,
Fluorescence Spectrometer, HPLC, GC-MS, ESI-MS, NMR (400 & 500 MHz), Other than this I learned
different software necessary for research like Olex2-1.3, Topspin, ChemDraw, Origin, Shelxtl, X’Pert
HighScore, MS Office, CryslisPro, Excel and PowerPoint.

RESEARCH INTEREST….

By the start of 1st semester, as a master student who had been in close association with research and PhD
students for over two years, I have witnessed the hurdles and difficulties faced by the PhD students. But I
have also observed the growth at both personal and intellectual level that these difficulties bring in those
individuals. I saw this growth in myself on a smaller scale during my journey at MNIT Jaipur as a student,
as a researcher, and as a tutor and feel prepared to embrace these difficulties during my own PhD journey.
“Chemistry without catalysis, would be a sword without a handle, a light without brilliance, a bell
without sound” (Alwin Mittasch)

I have confidence that studying organometallic chemistry will be critical in the development of
technology to address many of the problems humanity will face in the future. Researches in organometallic
chemistry extend to all fields– from catalysis, material science, the health sector to industries. My focus lies
in synthesis of novel catalyst and their utilization in different areas. For any homogenous catalyst, the
ancillary ligand and metal are the two most important legs on which a catalyst is synthesized. For selection
of metal we have limited option but for ligand, options are infinite. From last three decades, N-hetrocyclic
carbenes (NHCs) are playing very important role as a ancillary ligand and many scientist are working on this
worldwide because of their strong donor and thermal ability lead to extensive usability across every area of
inorganic and organometallic chemistry. I also want to work in this field. With concrete base in chemistry, I
can think of different ways to design novel compounds and their use in suitable system. I don’t know many
things but I am a good learner who has a passion for science.

FUTURE GOALS….

My future goals would be to choose a challenging post-doctoral position after this doctoral study and
eventually to engage in teaching and research as a career option. Because I come from a family where all
people work in agriculture and no one has got education up to metric; I am the first graduate in my family. I
have seen the struggle of my family to get me education. I have felt the lack of teachers and lack of good
school in my area during my schooling. That’s why I would love to see myself being a professor nurturing
and educating young minds, stimulating the next generation to become lifelong learners. Also I feel research
and teaching go hand in hand, doing cutting-edge research where I can push the boundaries of science by
continually surpassing the challenge of determining critical knowledge which would lead to the
advancement of society as a whole is my cherished dream.

REASON FOR CHOOSING ALBRECHT RESEARCH GROUP….

 Being highly interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research, for my graduate studies, I want to join a
place where I get the freedom to think independently and can also learn to apply fundamental research to
multi-faceted industrial applications aimed at solving real-world problems. The thrust on cutting-edge
research work in highly interdisciplinary projects of societal importance and the strong diversity of group
along with the state-of-the-art research instrumentation makes Albrecht research group the dream group
for anyone interested in pursuing graduate research in chemistry and I am no exception to it.

I will wait for any further information regarding this, thanking you in advance for your time and
consideration….