Tianjun Zhang

Country: China 
Degree: Graduate Diploma in Biotechnology (Biomedical)
Faculty: Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Hi, everyone. My name is Tianjun but you can call me Percy. I'm a postgraduate student at the University of Adelaide. I was born and grew up in Harbin, northeast of China. When I turned 16, I moved to Dunedin in New Zealand to start my high school year. I graduated with a Bachelor of genetics from the University of Otago, New Zealand and I adopted a “kiwi” style in the last 7 years.

Last July I enrolled in Adelaide in biotechnology, in Biomed. In the early days, I was not a model academic student and was more into socializing and building connections, integrating with different groups like students out of teachings. But as I studied more, I stepped up academically and began to work hard and looking for my passion in research. I’m not really an international student,  I'm more like a student international; I have lived overseas for ages! But in my view, I'm still a learner and I like to blend in with the local culture and academic environment.

My degree is really helpful. When I was taking undergraduate genetics, it was pretty theoretical subjects and more about paperwork sequencing. I was looking forward to something more novel, more practical.

It took me a year after I graduated to address what suited me the best until I found this degree in Adelaide. You can imagine how excited I was when I saw this degree that closely fits my future desires.

So I spoke with someone from the department in Adelaide to get more information.

As I expected the degree was very practical and interactive with cutting edge techniques. Also, it offered me a good opportunity to pursue a higher research degree, most of the coursework degrees don’t really offer that part. So I decided to enrol at Adelaide. The first semester was amazing, like I talked with the lecturers - they know about current issues and their research is at the top level in their area! 

I feel like I have found my purpose doing research and studying.