Eric Qian has been named one of the Spring 2018 Undergraduates of the Quarter and we couldn’t be happier for him.

Eric has been living in Corvallis since he was 4 years old and his love of the town helped contribute to his choice to stay local for college. He went to Crescent Valley High School, a school he enjoyed due to the passion the teachers had as well as the school’s dedication to the arts which helped him develop an interest in creating jewelry.

When entering college, Eric’s original plan was to be a premed student. He quickly discovered a love of materials science and decided he would focus on chemistry instead of becoming a doctor.

It was through joining Dr. Michelle Dolgos’ lab that he realized how much he enjoyed the chemistry side of his research, focusing on finding new and optimized ways to generate electricity.

Eric recently graduated, but took a short break from research to write his honors thesis, which focuses on the study of Aurivillius phases. His main focus was on ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties and trying to find a new material that is as effective as Lead Zirconium Titanate (PZT) yet wasn’t toxic or lead-based. Eric believes that the material chemistries’ focus towards environmentally friendly and green materials is very noble and focused most of his time there.

Eric plans to take a year off before Graduate School to relax. His main hopes are to get back into playing music because he is a musician at heart, being able to play piano, clarinet, tenor sax, and the organ. He also has an extensive list of nonfiction books he has been meaning to work his way through, including Stuff Matters, a book on materials that shaped human history.

The highest ambitions in Eric’s educational career is to gain a PhD and become a professor himself because of his love of teaching and conducting research. He believes it would be very fun to have a research group of his own in order to pass down his insights and spark the interests of future generations.