Christian is a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering at Northwestern University. Growing up, Christian always had a curiosity for the unknown. More specifically, he really wondered how the Hubble Telescope and the space shuttle, created by NASA, worked. Christian also loved to tinker around with stuff and help his father around the house. It was later that he realized that engineering was a great fit for him because his brain had worked better on the analytical/quantitative side.

Knowing that he had to do research in his undergrad years, Christian already knew that he had to get a Ph.D. in order to put himself in a good position. In his Ph.D., Christian worked as an experimentalist. He worked on the experimental verification of certain types of mechanics. More specifically he was interested in phase change. 

Advice:

1.) Don't be afraid to put yourself out there and volunteer for a lot of different things. That will give you the experience to put on your resume/CV and the contacts/references you'll need to succeed later in life. 

2.) You have time to figure things out. Do not worry or stress

3.) Have fun. College is over fairly quickly and you won't have another experience quite like it, so make sure it's not all work all the time.

4.) Don’t be concerned about the name/importance of the institution I went to. In the end it's less of the name of the institution and more of what you made of it with your time there.