Wednesday, March 30, 2016

PhD in a fun area, finding a (good) supervisor

I get emails from people asking me to supervise their PhD's (and give them a scholarship and if possible residency etc.... ;-)
Here is my super short answer


Dear D
if you want to have a better chance of being supervised for a PHD here are some suggestions:


1) read the papers which interest you and get a very good understanding of your area. 
- do some more research, 
- look at the research in the last 3 years. 
- what are the key new things ? 


2) Write a summary of the current state of research, what is being done, 
- what the current issues and challenges are. 
- reference them properly (find out what that means if you don't know). 

3) Think about what you would like to research and HOW. 


4) read  the links below
and 

5) contact the academics who are doing the work you want to do, in the area you want to work in.
Send them the summary your wrote in 2) above.
Ask intelligent questions about THEIR research
If and only iff they reply: outline your area of interest in 3) above.

Take it from there.

This should give you a better chance than just asking "please supervise me, here is my CV, I will work hard "

good luck 

Heiko