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Name: Kyle Foster
Hometown: Okeechobee, FL
Major: Materials Science & Engineering, PhD Student
Advisor: Wil V. Srubar III,

I grew up in Okeechobee, Florida, a small, agricultural community with a large, swampy lake where the cows outnumber people 5-to-1. My mother was a special education teacher for the gifted program and my father was an alligator farmer (the most ‘Florida’ profession in existence). Influences from my parents and my sister gave rise to unique perspectives of problem solving, rooted in pragmatism.

My Path to Materials Science & Engineering

Through high school, my interests turned towards physical and life sciences that addressed cause and effect and problem solving in Nature. My first year of undergrad at the University of Florida, I attended a lecture that spotlighted the evolution of Materials Science and Engineering as a discipline. Truly a love at first sight scenario of applying physics, chemistry, and engineering principles through the telescoping lens from the atomic to macroscopic scale to solve real-world issues. As hokey as it sounds, I really enjoyed school. I reached the end of my bachelor’s degree and did not feel like I was finished. There was much more that I wanted to learn and many more ways that I wanted to grow. I thought that throwing myself into the deep end of a PhD program would really force my academic growth – whether I liked it or not. I wanted to stay with the discipline that I loved, so I searched almost exclusively for Materials Science and Engineering Programs at other universities which landed me in a biomaterials research lab here at CU where my interest in working with naturally derived materials persists.

Why CU Boulder?

My decision to go to the University of Colorado – Boulder was two-part: the program and location. The Materials Science and Engineering Program was brand new and did not have much of a reputation. This had the allure of direct engagement in the growth and prospering of a new program. Standing on the shoulders of a great Engineering College and immense support from the Liberal Arts and Sciences College has helped bolster the program over the last few years. It is interesting to exist in an in-between where we interact collaboratively with academics in diverse disciplines. As for the other part of my answer, I was a flatlander living in a swamp all my life who wanted to take advantage of this chapter of my life to live in a completely different environment, both socially and ecologically.

The thing that I love most about CU is the strange duality of being laidback, yet highly productive. Just walking around campus has a relaxed atmosphere with people who generally seem happier than other places I have lived. My belief is that it has a lot to do with emphasizing student and faculty health, encompassing mental and physical health, which has led to greater academic health. In any case, I have no regrets on my decision to attend CU.