by John Russell
When Julia Chiang arrived at Penn, she was not trying to narrow her interests too quickly. She was drawn to engineering, but also to science. She cared about sustainability, but wanted room to explore. She wanted research opportunities, strong faculty mentorship, and a community where different kinds of curiosity could thrive. That search led her to Penn’s Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research, better known as VIPER, and to materials science and engineering.
Chiang, a fourth-year student in Materials Science and Engineering who is also studying chemistry as part of the VIPER program, came to Penn from a town about 20 minutes outside Princeton, New Jersey.
In high school, she had developed a strong interest in sustainability and energy research, but she was still deciding how she wanted to pursue those interests.
“I applied to VIPER because I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to do engineering or science,” Chiang said. “I was also interested in sustainability a lot in high school, and I thought the energy research was pretty cool.”
Penn offered her a place where those interests did not have to compete with one another. Through VIPER and Penn Engineering, Chiang saw a chance to study across disciplines, conduct research, meet faculty, and learn from students with a wide range of ambitions.
“I realized that VIPER and Penn was a really great place to explore all the things I was interested in at the time,” she said. “Research, meeting so many cool faculty, and just meeting a lot of people with a lot of different interests.”
That spirit of exploration has shaped much of Chiang’s time at Penn. Since the summer after her freshman year, she has worked in Professor lab, a polymer physics group. Nearly three years later, she says the lab has become one of the central parts of her undergraduate experience.
“I’ve been here since the summer after my freshman year, so almost three years now,” Chiang said. “It’s been great. Professor Composto has been a great mentor to me, and I’m really happy I joined.”
In the lab, Chiang has worked on two main projects. The first focused on polymer electrolytes for sodium batteries, a research area tied to the search for new energy storage technologies. The second explored ways to mitigate urban heat in Philadelphia, connecting materials science to a practical environmental issue in the city around Penn.
Both projects reflect the broad nature of materials science. The field sits at the intersection of chemistry, physics, engineering, and real-world problem solving. For Chiang, that breadth has been one of its strengths.
Her research experience has also taught her lessons that go beyond any one experiment or technical skill.
“For research, I’ve learned it’s all about being curious and keeping an open mind,” Chiang said.
That lesson has come not only from the work itself, but from the people around her. Chiang said the Composto group has been a strong source of guidance, with Ph.D. students and mentors helping her grow as a researcher and as a Penn student.
“Everyone is such a great resource,” she said. “All the Ph.D. students have been really great mentors.”
One mentor in particular, Shreyas Pathreeker, who left Penn about a year ago, helped guide her through both the technical aspects of research and the larger questions that come with college life.
“Shreyas was really great,” Chiang said. “Both guiding me in terms of the technical aspects of research, but also guiding me in terms of what I wanted to do career-wise, or just navigating Penn as a university.”
This summer, Chiang took her interest in energy in a new direction. After spending the past two summers in research, she interned at West Monroe in New York, working in the firm’s energy and utilities department.
Her role in consulting, a shift from her previous research experiences. Chiang said she was excited for the chance to see the energy industry from a different point of view.
That willingness to try something new reflects the same openness that brought her to Penn in the first place. Rather than following a single fixed path, Chiang has used her undergraduate years to test different ways of working on problems she cares about.
For students considering Penn, materials science, or VIPER, Chiang points first to community.
Materials Science and Engineering is one of the smaller majors in Penn Engineering, and that size has shaped her experience in important ways.
“I think the community in Materials Science and Engineering is extremely unique,” Chiang said.
“It’s one of the smallest majors in engineering, and I’ve been able to get a lot closer with a lot of the faculty because of the size of the department.”
Small classes have made a difference, too. With many courses enrolling around 20 to 30 students, Chiang said students have the chance to build real relationships with professors and classmates.
“Our classes are extremely small, too, around 20 to 30 people, which allows you to get really close to the professor and also the people in your class,” she said.
For Julia, that closeness has made Materials Science and Engineering feel like more than an academic program. It has been a place to learn, ask questions, find mentors, and build vrelationships that may last well beyond her undergraduate years.
“It’s just been a really great community where I feel like I’ve been able to learn a lot and find a lot of mentors I think I’ll look up to for a long time,” she said.
From energy research to polymer physics, from sodium batteries to urban heat, from the lab to a consulting internship, Chiang’s path at Penn has been defined by curiosity and steady exploration. She came to Penn looking for a place where engineering, science, and sustainability could meet. Three years in, she seems to have found exactly that.