My name is Fabio Sporchia and I study/work in the department of geological, physical, and environmental sciences of the University of Siena within the Ecodynamics research group. I chose to undertake a PhD program because I developed a strong interest in the sustainability science ever since I came incontact with the sustainability concept and I would like to pursue a careerthat allows me to investigate in this sense, contributing to the scientificknowledge as much as possible. I selected the PhD SDC programme because it matched perfectly my intention and my background giving me the opportunity to persue my academic research interests in a stimulating work environment.
I have been working in the Sustainable Engineering Research Group (SERG) at the William G.Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of the Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio, United States of America. The research groupworks on developing innovative designs by seeking synergies between human andnatural systems, including the role of ecosystems in sustainability assessment,enabling a circular economy of plastics, decarbonization of the chemicalindustry, among others. The research group is led by Dr. Bhavik Bakshi (RichardM. Morrow Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) which is anexpert in sustainable engineering and in particular in
Furthermore,he is among the top experts in thermodynamics applied to both natural resourcesand engineering. In particular, his work focused on the use of eco-exergy andemergy for the environmental sustainability assessment of engineering systems.These aspects perfectly made him and his research group particularly suitablefor the development of part of my research program, which involves theapplication of thermodynamics metrics for the sustainability assessment andresponsibility attribution in global supply chains.
I havespent there six months, from early November 2022 to early May 2023.
Theuniversity appeared to be quite intricated in terms of bureaucracy at first.However, after dealing with the many initial tasks I understood how this wouldbenefit my experience there in terms of services availability, and bothgeneral, and specific organization. Both the on-campus and off-campus serviceswere extremely good. Consider, for example, that the university provided ahigh-frequency continuous free bus transport service to connect thestudent residential areas to the campus.
My supervisor, Dr. Bakshi, was very welcoming, helpful, and greatly available fromthe very first moment – on top of having been very available and helpful evenbefore my arrival. He always made sure that I was feeling comfortable and thatI could benefit the most during my stay.
The researchgroup was very large when I joined it. It was composed of 11 PhD students,beside me, plus the group leader, Dr. Bakshi. There was a great mix of cultureand gender with people coming from various countries. The PhD students were atvarious stages of their projects, they dealt with several different topics, andcame from different backgrounds. They work on different topics and projectswith some of them working at a molecular level, and some of them working at anecosystem level. They were very welcoming and helpful, especially during myvery first days in the group. I had the opportunity to integrate into the teamby collaborating with some of them by sharing my expertise and being greatlyinspired and helped by theirs. This was largely beneficial for the developmentof my research.
In my case there were two main adversities: the visa request procedure and theaccommodation. Timing and planning were extremely importantfor the first. The procedure itself was not so difficult, but looking back I would certainly tried to expedite the very first part of the whole process. Asthe application procedure for the USA for this specific kind of visa (J-1) isvery specific, detailed, and long, I would strongly recommend anybodyinterested in this country to start the procedures with the host university asmuch in advance as possible since multiple stages of the procedures are totallyout of your control (host university’s time for filling and mailing theforms, consulate/embassy appointments etc.).
Second, myhost university did provide any kind of support in terms of accommodation tovisiting scholars (either on-campus or off-campus). There were just somesuggestions for off-campus accommodation. I resorted to craigslist.com, asimple, intuitive, and light webpage that allows to link accommodation demandand offer. I found what I thought it would be a good deal and I was helped byone of the PhD students which visited the place in my name.
Now that Iam back to Italy I will be dealing with the next part of my research plan,which includes the application of the methodology that I have developed duringmy stay. The experience was very enriching since I had the opportunity toreceive extremely helpful feedback and guidance that drove the refinement ofthe initially sketched idea. The feedback came from both the local supervisorand the PhD students. Receiving feedback from people that might me not so usedto deal with your kind of research is very relevant since it gives you an ideaabout what’s missing to ensure that your message is fully understood. The workwithin the research group was also managed in a way that stimulated thedialogue among the various students, greatly contributing to the development oftheir projects, as well as mine. Indeed, I like to think that I contributed tothe development of their projects with my feedback.
I loved the multiculturality of the country and the sense of community among the students,which included the existence of events and opportunities every day, many ofwhich were open to the broad public – and not just to students/academics. Itwas difficult though to realize how difficult it is to move around without aprivate vehicle and how the culinary culture is totally different. I was luckyenough to be able to visit some cities in Ohio and in other states over theweekends. Otherwise I would take advantage of the various available Metroparksto go for a hike or to have a picnic – when the weather would allow it.Visiting American history museums was one of the most interesting experiencesthat enriched my knowledge about the present and past of this country. Duringmy stay I mostly worked from the office since it was very nice and properlyequipped.