It Takes a Global Village

Yiyi Wong and the swirling world around her in Times Square, New York City.

Yiyi Wong knows that people around the world share more than just common hopes and dreams – they share a fragile natural eco-system and a growing realization that they must find a way to live in harmony with each other, and the environment.

From her family's home in New York, to her classrooms at North Carolina State University, to her field laboratory in the Yangtze River delta in China, Wong is on a journey of discovery with an ambitious goal – to help solve the challenges of global climate change.

During a trip to China funded by the National Science Foundation last year to study global warming, Wong found herself immersed in the raw material she had come to analyze – literally. "There's a yellow haze in the atmosphere in Beijing," she says. "I was there for three months and there were only two days when I actually saw blue sky."

The haze is made up of dust, smoke, soot and other particulates. Some of it comes from natural sources, like volcanoes and forest fires, but most is the result of human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles and factories.  To accurately predict this pollution's affect on the climate, scientists need to measure how much of it is trapped by microscopic marine organisms.

Wong, a graduate student in marine, earth and atmospheric science, was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to do just that in China. She heads to Shanghai this year to work on a global aerosol project in collaboration with students and faculty at East China Normal University.

The Fulbright Scholarship program awards grants to thousands of American students, teachers, professionals, and scholars to study, teach, lecture, and conduct research in more than 155 countries. Wong's $19,000 scholarship will fund her research for 10 months.

Wong isn't the only NC State student working and studying abroad. NC State has more than 200 academic partners on six continents, giving students the opportunity to experience education on a truly global scale.

Dig Deeper:

• What the World Needs Now