July 9, 2010
By Robin Donovan

Yueran Yan (left) and Dr. Greg Van Patten outside Clippinger Hall.  Yan is taking a break from his doctoral research to pursue an internship this summer.

While scores of doctoral students hunker down in laboratories this summer, Yueran Yan is moving to a new city, working for a new company, and making practical use of his lab skills.

After presenting his research at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in San Francisco last March, the president of Sun Innovations introduced himself to Yan. Following a brief email exchange, he offered Yan an internship at the company's laboratory in Fremont, California.

"I know a lot of people, they have the ability to do research, but they don't like to talk to people, they will be shy presenting in front of people. You need to tell people you can do it. I think that's the most important thing," Yan said.

Yan’s advisor, Dr. Greg Van Patten, encouraged him to present at the conference and said Yan will likely teach the company as much about quantum dots as he learns from them. “If nothing else, he’ll come back with a new understanding of how the materials he’s working with can fit into new technologies. . . .You see these scientific papers and you see that other people are working in this field, but these materials [quantum dots] haven’t really been used in the industry yet,” Van Patten said.

As an assistant engineer, Yan will synthesize quantum dots that function as semiconductors and can be tailored to customers' needs. Yan talked happily about this new challenge, describing himself as, "A little bit excited. I never worked at a company before. I've always just done research at a university in a lab. This is the first time I'm going to make a product that can be used in real life. I don't have a lot of experience with that, so I feel a little bit excited and nervous."

Yan's current work focuses on synthesizing quantum dots, or designer atoms, with two shells that protect unstable cadmium telluride at the dot's core. He explained, "We want to figure out the best material to use for biological applications like bio-imaging."

A research or development position in the bio-imaging or solar cell industry is Yan’s dream job. On a nanoscale, this might mean using dyes to identify different types or parts of cells. For example, bio-imaging could help surgeons identify cancerous tissue without guesswork. This could prevent the needless removal of healthy tissue and organs. In the solar cell industry, quantum dots can also be used as a source of white-light LEDs.

Yan is quick to admit that internships aren't a popular summer activity among his peers. "It's not common. Especially for the chemistry or physics department, we don't have an internship requirement," he said, noting the difference between these fields and disciplines such as engineering that tend to be more practical.

For chemistry students like Yan, long, uninterrupted lab hours make summer an ideal time for research. Some students may look for internship work toward the end of their doctoral degree program. Still, economic factors and the theoretical nature of some research can make academic work impractical in the business world.

Yan's internship at Sun Innovations will run through August 28th. In September, he will begin his fourth year as a doctoral student with Dr. Greg Van Patten's research group. He hopes to finish his degree in the next two years.