STATEMENT OF PURPOSE FOR DOCTORAL DEGREE IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY BAWAH, ABDUL-RASHIDI developed a keen interest in chemical engineering around the time I was pursuing the my undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at Ghana's premier scientific university, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). At KNUST I had the greatest opportunity to study a wide range of subject areas, within and outside the field of chemical engineering, such as reaction engineering, mass transfer, heat transfer and fluid transport. Before completing my undergraduate studies, it was the field of energy and sustainability that caught my interest. At that juncture I had already decided to continue my studies in that field of chemical engineering. During the summer holidays of my third year, I was offered the opportunity to undertake, with other colleagues, a project involving the design, construction and testing of a solar reflector for torrefying biomass into biochar, which I accepted because I wanted to explore this further. topic of global importance. I would like to point out that the selection of team members for that project was based on the class ranking, and therefore the best 5 students were selected from a class of approximately 106 students. During the period of this project I had the opportunity to pragmatically apply the academic knowledge I had acquired in the classroom over the three years of study. While this satisfied my wish, what actually disturbed my enthusiasm and curiosity was the process of converting biomass into energy. I also worked on a project that involved the design, construction and testing of a Venturi scrubber to control gaseous pollutants. Globally, crude oil at......middle of paper......was falling less than a point below the first-class mark. This was a result of financial problems on the part of my parents who were also my sponsors. My abilities are evident from the results of other semesters, including the fourth semester of the second semester in which I excelled. I cautiously looked at a number of graduate programs and ultimately chose the one at Michigan Technological University, Department of Chemical Engineering, primarily because Michigan Tech has distinguished faculty and research facilities. It also has an environment that will inculcate in me an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving. The uniqueness of the University is characterized by the different research areas in the various engineering disciplines. I hope to be granted the opportunity to pursue a PhD in chemical engineering at Michigan Technological University.