Personal Statement for Imperial College London

My name is Naufal Hafizh and with this personal statement, I express my interest in applying for the MSc of
Advanced Chemical Engineering with Biotechnology program offered at Imperial College London. As one of
the best university in UK, it offers wide discipline of bioprocess engineering including pharmaceutical,
process optimization, and sustainable energy with addition of business, finance, and management. With my
current experience as Research Engineer in Research Center for Agroindustry of Indonesian National Agency
for Research and Innovation, I wish to enrich my knowledge about how to develop biotechnological aspect
and process operation of food industry and agricultural environment to solve the problem, whether in
society and/or industry.

During my career as research engineer, I have participated in several research project such as production of
trypsin enzyme from lactic acid bacteria for supplementary digestive system, fruit coating solution from palm
oil derivatives, and protease inhibitor production to prevent SARS-CoV-2 as alternative medicine for Covid-
19. Before I join to Indonesian National Agency for Research and Innovation, I had worked in Technology
Centre for Bioindustry of Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application and had participated in
Penicillin-G acylase production for penicillin to 6-APA and 6-APA to amoxycillin in Amoxycillin production
process and N and S1 protein production from SARS-CoV-2 as raw material for antibody rapid test kit.

I hold a B.Eng. degree in Bioprocess Engineering from University of Indonesia. During my degree, I
participated in several student club especially in Society for Biological Engineering Universitas Indonesia
Student Chapter for three years since freshman students to enhance my knowledge about biological
engineering and the application in industry. I also appointed as teaching assistant for Bioenergetics and Cell
Culture courses and as laboratory assistant for Bioprocess Operation Unit courses for one year. My
undergraduate thesis, with later being published in AIP Conference Proceeding, is the production of
unsaturated fatty acid from Rhizopus oligosporus yeast with production optimalization in temperature,
glucose concentration, and agitation rate. At the end, I passed with “Very Good” predicate. I wish this
education experience helps me to understand the core and optional modules due to closeness of the topics
I have learnt.

From all the modules offered in MSc of Advanced Chemical Engineering with Biotechnology program offered
at Imperial College London, I express my interest to take optional module in advance process operation,
product characterisation, process heat transfer, business strategy as well as obligatory core module. I also
express my interest in doing project related to process treatment of fresh crop products. Those are suitable
for my future career when I come back to my home country because it can be linked with fresh product
treatment project that me and my team handled it later. In addition, this is important to learn safety aspects
in every possibilities of treatment procedure (such as with palm oil-based coating, drying, or iradiation) to
ensure the product will be save and fresh if the products will be consumed by human and to learn the
economic feasibility of each alternative treatment procedure to give the optimum cost of overall production
later.

With all of my experience listed, I want to step up my professional career miles ahead. This program is
specifically relevant with both my education background and research career as well as business and
marketing strategy that important for research application to industry and society. In addition, studying
abroad provides great experience for celebrating cultural diversity and exchanging knowledge from students
around the world. I am sure that the knowledge and skills that I have got from my job, university, and
extracurricular campus would make a valuable addition for me to the MSc of Advanced Chemical Engineering
with Biotechnology program offered at Imperial College London.