Álvaro Sahagun’s Success Story

See Full Story at UIC website by Andrea Poet

For senior Álvaro Sahagun, the final semester at UIC has been filled with a unique challenge: choosing from among the seven electrical engineering doctoral programs that accepted him. The University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley all made offers to Sahagun.

Last month, Sahagun said yes to MIT. He’s received an MIT Alfred P. Sloan Scholarship, GEM PhD Engineering Fellowship, and an MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Departmental Fellowship, which combined will fully support him for five years of study, including housing, health insurance, and more.

“That helped sway my decision,” said Sahagun, who was originally torn between Berkeley and MIT.

Sahagun plans to study electrical engineering generally, but his main focus is nanotechnology, and the electrical and optical property of two-dimensional materials. This is a continuation of the work Sahagun started as an undergraduate here at UIC.