An Interesting Professor

>>Are You Taking New Students?

Yes, I am currently taking students, and I do have funding for them. The areas of my research are described on my home page, and my current research is some extrapolation of what's written there. I am only interested in PhD students - if you want a MS only, I'm not the right choice for your advisor. When I state that I am accepting students, this does not imply that I admit anyone directly. So, the process of becoming my student is the following: apply to the graduate program in general, get accepted, perform well in your first year classes and exams, and at some point in your first year, discuss what you're interested in doing. Please, do not send me your application and resume right now. Doing so proves that you're capable of ignoring the instructions written several times in this single page.

>>What Is Your Ideal Student?

I'm not looking for slave labor, nor am I looking for programming drones. The ideal student for me is some combination of being bright and being hard-working. Coupled with this is the desire to actually pursue research, which is some catch-all term for investigating an area where you don't have all of the answers. I'd rather deal with someone who's willing to be a little risky and come up with nothing than someone who's willing to risk nothing and comes up with nothing exciting. Research by its nature is an inherent gamble. However, it's a risk that can be managed - if you aim for something ambitious, you may not graduate in four years. However, when you do graduate, chances are that you'll have far more interesting options than someone who just wanted to get out as quickly as possible. That being said, I also want someone who is practical - a working incomplete system is far more useful than a complete but non-working system. So, some amount of programming is almost always needed in order to get your PhD. In fact, chances are good that you'll do a fair bit of programming on your own projects. Such is life.

>>How Do I Get More Answers?

If you have more questions, I'm willing to provide more answers. However, I need to have some proof that you've bothered to read this far. So, what I ask is that if you want to write me a question, please open it with "Dear Sidney Poitier," which is the name of a famous actor. This will let me know that you read this whole page and that I shouldn't just delete your e-mail. If you're wondering why I ask that you call me Sidney Poitier, it's because I receive too much mass e-mail that starts off with "Dear Sir:" - a look into Poitier's filmography will answer the rest.