Advice

Before contacting me

• Please read this website and my papers before contacting me. Know that you are interested in working in my area of research. If your email states a vague interest such as “bioinformatics” or “evolution” it significantly reduces the chances I’ll write back.

• Please let me know your research interests. I want to work with people who have their own ideas and goals. If you are a prospective graduate student let me know what have you done that was really exciting and you would like to investigate further. If you are finishing graduate school consider what research questions could we work on together and develop into a grant application.

• Show me you have the potential to do well in graduate school. Potential means you can communicate well in your email, you have done research as an undergraduate or graduate student (so you know that’s what you want to do for the next 2-5 years), and you work hard. I do not require prior programming experience.

• Send your C.V. or resume. It helps me to see your experience. If you don’t know what a C.V. should look like, look at mine. You don’t have to have extensive experience, but I want to see you’ve been working toward your goals in school and research.

• For additional advice see http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/07/25/how-to-write-an-email-to-a-potential-ph-d-advisor/