一个美国教授写的，关于选phd和陶瓷

wxfily0607 - 2008-4-8 16:48:00

Attracting my attention
Students wishing to attract my attention for a possible research or teaching assistantship should not send me a generic e-mail with their creditials. Such letters should be sent to the department as part of the formal application process, and not to me. Students are also encouraged to peruse our lab web page.
I also value the following:
new ideas
Students who have read my research papers (some of which are available on my web page) and e-mail me with truly innovative and promising directions for extending or improving the work. On the other hand, sending me an e-mail repeating the conclusions of one of the papers simply suggests that a student was unable to develop new ideas, and looks bad.
published papers
Students with English-language publications in respected conferences or journals stand out among prospective students.
school and GPA
I find that good GPAs from top schools (undergraduate or graduate) correlate well with strong research potential.
national awards
Students with top awards at respected national competitions (e.g., good marks in the USAMO or Putnam competition for US applicants
Credentials

I am generally not interested in the following:
GRE scores (general exam)
I find these scores to be meaningless, unless they are bad.

Except for top schools, grade inflation renders most GPAs useless (unless particularly low).
area of interest
I find the most students do not really have a specific area of interest in mind when entering graduate school.

The following skills are additionally important for my research:
advanced math courses :
My work tends to be mathematical in nature. Good grades in the following graduate courses distinguish an excellent student: number theory, modern algebra, complexity theory, combinatorics, and probability.
research related courses
Courses related to my reseach include: error-correcting codes, networking, algorithms, cryptography, and distributed systems.
programming
Some of my research is confirmed and continued through computer simulations and experiments. The ability to design, build, and interface with sophisticated programs in the following languages is advantegeous: C, C++, Java, perl, and LaTeX.
effective communication
Excellent written and oral communication skills are important for properly presenting research results.

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