Teachers, family helped inspire new Ph.D.
Staff writer
Crediting his family and high school instructors as his motivation, Marion High School graduate Sam Ehrlich received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering this month from the Georgia Institute of Technology. His parents are Mike and Kathy Ehrlich.
“He was always very organized and neat,” Kathy said. “Just very smart.”
Mike added, “We knew he was probably going to do something that took him outside of Marion.”
He graduated from Marion High School in 2010. He plans to work in biotechnology.
“I do my best work when the motivation is obvious, and it doesn’t get much more obvious than improving people’s health,” Sam said.
Sam said he could not think of a singular moment that inspired his pursuits.
“I’ve just always loved solving problems, and I’d really like someone to use something I’ve worked on and be better for it,” he said.
Many people inspired him.
“My family has always supported me even when I haven’t followed a conventional path,” he said. “My parents always treated me like an adult and encouraged me to keep learning and trying new things.”
He also credits high school teachers including Mark Meyer, Grant Thierolf, Gary Stuchlik, and Bruce Rhoades.
“This list isn’t exhaustive, but these folks taught me how to make things, think, and generally encouraged me to try things that I would not have had the confidence to try otherwise,” Sam said.
After high school, Sam was told kids who enjoyed math and science, as he did, should study engineering.
He attended Kansas State University and received his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in December 2014.
“I then spent a year and half being moderately irresponsible, traveling, until I started at GIT in August 2018,” he said. “I honestly didn’t have a firm grasp of what I was getting into at the time. I received my bachelor’s, I worked for a couple of years and didn’t care for it.”
Ultimately, Sam decided he wanted to shift his research and solve health-related problems. He worked as a research assistant while getting his degree.
“Grad students occupy this weird space between student and full-time employee,” Sam said. It took him 7½ years to earn his doctorate.
“There’s a decent amount of coursework—42 credit hours I believe, for my program—but the lion’s share of the work is research in the lab,” Sam said. “I’m a co-author on a few papers and just had my first author paper accepted, with another hopefully on the way shortly.”
To receive a Ph.D., a student must pass qualifying exams, oral and written, on general engineering knowledge.
“Those were pretty intense,” Sam said.
A candidate then proposes a thesis to a committee. When the thesis is complete, the candidate must defend it to the committee’s satisfaction. Clear those hurdles and a person can call themselves a doctor.
“I think I sacrificed some of my sanity in the pursuit of a Ph.D.,” Sam said. “Research can be a maddening exercise sometimes.”
But the many weekend experiments, late nights, and excruciating failures were worth it, he said.
“I gained much more than I sacrificed,” Sam said.
He is working in his field of study in San Diego.
He admitted it was a bit different coming from a small town and making big strides elsewhere.
“It is odd, and that oddness is reinforced whenever I go back and forth. When I go home, I’m a ‘city-slicker’ and when I’m in Atlanta or San Diego, then I’m a bit of a rustic. I like it though.
“People who have lived in small towns and big cities have a perspective that I think is hard to attain if you’ve only experienced one or the other.”
His main takeaway after having met lots of people from lots of different places is that most people are good and friendly.
Sam still thinks of Marion as his hometown.
“I’d like to thank the community for helping me get to where I am today,” he said. “Marion is a great place to grow up.”
He encourages the young people looking to pursue engineering or science to absolutely do so.
“Don’t hold back because you’re from a small town,” he said. “We live in an age where nearly all information is available. You’d be surprised how far you can get just cracking open a book or trying out some tutorials. Learning how to learn is a superpower.”