HOME STUDENTS PUBLICATIONS TEACHING SERVICE CV EMAIL

Interested in a PhD?

Information for prospective research students

Academics have little influence as to whether a person gets a full PhD scholarship: it is mostly based on GPA and publication record and is done centrally for the entire University.

Before You Email Me

Referee requirement (external applicants). If you are not already a student at an institution where I hold an appointment (currently ANU, and UNSW Sydney), I will only consider you as a potential thesis student — and only reply to your email — if the first paragraph of your email names at least one referee who (a) knows you personally and is willing to provide a reference for you, and (b) has published at least one paper at one of the four major ACM SIGPLAN conferences — POPL, PLDI, ICFP, or OOPSLA — or at a similarly strong venue in the area, such as CAV. For a broader list of reputable venues, please see the ACM conferences listing. Please state the referee's name and briefly explain how they know you. Emails that do not meet this requirement will be filed away without a response, and follow-ups to such emails will not be answered either: doing this homework is a basic courtesy when approaching a potential thesis supervisor.

Local students are exempt: if you are already at my institution, feel free to simply email me — and ideally come and chat in person — at any point.

It would also be useful for me to know more about your background:

  1. What relevant courses have you completed (e.g. software verification, type systems, compiler design, program analysis, programming languages, or mathematics) and can you demonstrate a strong grade (e.g. A+ or HD) in those courses? Please include a transcript.
  2. Have you published any papers before or wrote any research theses (including at undergraduate level)?
  3. What relevant industrial experience do you have, especially when it comes with novel programming languages and what is your interest in the area?

Please structure your email to name your SIGPLAN-published referee in the first paragraph and then clearly address each of the three points above. Emails that do not meet the referee requirement or do not address all three points will be filed away without a response.

You can see my interests by looking at my publications.

Useful Resources

There is much useful advice online, including:

Ready to Apply?

Check out the ANU PhD scholarships and email me with the information above — external applicants, remember to name your SIGPLAN-published referee in the first paragraph.

ANU PhD Scholarships Email Me