PostTime：4/22/2026
Not scoring high enough for traditional medicine programs was once Wang Yan's upset after Gaokao exam. But GTIIT, a better "fit" for her, offered another path. This university, which had only been enrolling students for three years at the time, took her to direct-entry Ph.D., and earned her two first-author papers in top-tier journals, and more importantly, forged in her a strong sense of purpose in research.
Seven years have passed. The road "she never pictured herself on" has only grown wider.
Wang Yan
High School: Shantou Jinshan Middle School
B.Sc. (2019–2023): Biotechnology and Food Engineering, GTIIT
Direct-entry Ph.D. (Oct. 2023 – present): jointly trained by Biotechnology and Food Engineering (GTIIT) + Civil and Environmental Engineering (Technion)
Awards & Honors: School Leadership Scholarship; Second Class Prize in the School Entrepreneurship Competition
UG: The fullest schedule, the fastest growth
When applying for a university, Wang Yan — deeply passionate about biology — hoped to choose a related field that would eventually lead her into areas closely tied to human health. "My Gaokao score wasn't competitive for traditional medical programs. After careful discussion with my parents, we felt GTIIT was a better fit for me." With a resolve to "rise to the challenge," she chose a path "she never pictured herself on."
After enrollment, the nearly two-month preparatory semester helped her transition smoothly into an all-English learning environment. "What struck me most was how many professors would say, 'There are no stupid questions in class.'" At GTIIT, the open and inclusive, inquiry-driven teaching style quickly made her let go of the fear of "asking the wrong question," gradually shifting from passive reception to active thinking.
Then came the more intense regular semesters. "From Monday to Friday, classes ran from 8 a.m. to early evening — the undergraduate schedule was truly packed. But it wasn't just about the quantity; the courses were highly sequential," she explained. "If you didn't solidly grasp the prerequisite courses, it would affect how well you could follow the subsequent ones."
The tight-knit, closely connected curriculum continuously trained her to develop a systematic, interdisciplinary mindset. "Engineering courses like fluid mechanics, mass transfer, and heat transfer were more challenging for me than pure biology classes. They required not just memorizing concepts, but building a complete engineering mindset and deductive logic."
visited an enterprise in a BFE course
To pass every course while maintaining her target GPA, she learned to plan ahead, switch gears quickly, and developed the ability to keep her rhythm under high pressure. In the second semester of her sophomore year, she stepped into "real, hands-on" research, joining a cell mechanics project co-led by Professor Xu Xinpeng from the Physics Department and Professor Eric Hald (Biomedical Engineering) from Shantou University. The project investigated substrate stiffness sensing and response by single cells, and she contributed to the wet-lab experiments.
This period brought rapid growth. "I learned a wide range of skills - performing live Hoechst imaging with confocal microscope to explore cells’ migration dynamics, in parallel with fixation and staining with DAPI and Phalloidin 488/555 to analyze morphological changes and cytoskeletal alignment; and using Imaris to extract the trajectory and quantify cell velocity and persistence time."
2nd Prize in the School Entrepreneurship Competition
Although the project did not lead to a published paper, the sense of immersion and achievement she gained from research convinced her to keep on it.
Ph.D: Into the lab, into real problems
Despite receiving offers from multiple world-leading universities when applying for graduate programs, she still chose to stay at her home institution for a direct PhD track, under the joint supervision of advisors from GTIIT's Biotechnology and Food Engineering program and Technion's Civil and Environmental Engineering program.
"The most critical reason was 'fit.'" Unlike the uncertainty she felt when choosing an undergraduate school, after four years of training, she was certain that GTIIT was a "value investment" she could hold onto for the long term. "The international, interdisciplinary, and research-oriented nature of GTIIT's graduate programs is very distinctive. Students enter an English-language research context early on and can build connections between life sciences, engineering, and real-world applications. At the same time, the Sino-Israeli joint training brings both countries' contexts into the same research framework, which is crucial for my work."
attended the school seminars
After starting her graduate studies, she joined Prof. Olivier Habimana's research group, studying how microorganisms attach, form biofilms, and respond to environmental changes such as salinity in aquatic environments and engineered systems, thereby affecting system safety and function. Her choice of this direction, beyond her strong interest in cell mechanics and image analysis, stems from her pursuit of "real problems" — cultivated under GTIIT's practical and open research training.
"I am now more sure that I'm better suited for projects that have both depth in fundamental research and strong connections to real-world applications," she emphasized. "The direction I chose is not an abstract question that exists only in papers, but real problems directly related to agricultural irrigation, water resource utilization, environmental health, and even public safety — especially in scenarios using reclaimed water, freshwater, or blended saline water, where changes in biofilms directly impact pipeline system performance, pollution control, and pathogen risks."
Outdoor sampling in Technion courses
Guided by this philosophy, she dug deeper into the lab, yet she also fell into self-doubt during the toughest phase of her research.
"I went to report to Olivier, feeling almost breaking down," Wang Yan recalled. "He first helped me sort out which problems needed priority and which ones shouldn't be amplified by my emotions. Then he walked me back to the core hypothesis of the project and told me that for someone newly entering a new system, being able to independently sort out the entire experimental chain to that extent was already a great job."
That crucial conversation became a "shot in the arm" for her. "I learned one thing, when you hit a problem, you can't just mechanically push forward. You have to learn to break down variables, add controls, optimize processes, and separate technical issues from scientific questions. When you're 'stuck,' what you really need isn't to act rushly, but to think more calmly."
group dinner of Olivier's lab
Her exploration finally bore fruit. She successively published first-author papers in the respected journals Water Research X (IF: 8.2) and ISME Communications (IF: 6.1). The findings are expected to provide a basis for safer irrigation management, pipeline maintenance, and water quality risk assessment.
"Looking back, the most valuable thing is not the achievements you put on your CV, but the kind of person you have grown into along the way." During her time at GTIIT, she built another "laboratory" within the student club. As the Vice President of the Association Commercial Entrepreneurs, she and her team organized events such as an on-campus entrepreneurship competition, a simulated stock trading competition, a flea market, and guest lectures. She turned ideas into reality and engraved collaboration and coordination onto her skillset.
organized a contest and a talk
participated in recruitment
In addition, roles such as peer mentor, teaching assistant, and admissions assistant also helped her grow continuously. "I truly came to understand what it means to think independently and to take sustained responsibility for a problem," she said.
"To the younger students, I want to say: don't just think of GTIIT as 'a university with high academic demands.' See it as a platform that can reshape your way of learning — take the initiative to adapt, to ask, and to seek out resources." Looking back on her seven years at GTIIT, her guiding principle has been simple: no excuses, just do it. And it is this resilience that will support her as she pursues the next question in the real world of scientific research.
participated in choir
Text: GTIIT News & Public Affairs
Photos: Provided by Wang Yan
