I receive many emails from prospective students who are interested in joining my lab. (Thanks for your interest!) I reply with this page when inquiries have one or more of the following issues:

1. You asked a question that I answered in the Guide for Joining My Lab
2. You did not follow the instructions for contacting me (also in the Guide for Joining My Lab)
3. You are interested in an internship, but the opening does not exist (again, see the Guide)
4. You did not show an awareness of my research, or it was limited to broad keywords
5. You appeared to use a generic email to contact several faculty at once

Many faculty members ignore emails with these issues. I decided that ignoring emails like yours would be mean, so I created this page to send as a reply. I hope you are not offended that I sent it to you.

You should check out the Guide for Joining My Lab for information on how to join my lab. You might also check out the Guide for Interacting With Faculty for advice on emailing faculty. If you haven't already browsed my research and publications pages to learn about my research, you should do that too.

After reading those materials, if you sense a good match between our interests, you are welcome to follow the instructions in the Guide for Joining My Lab to contact me again. Otherwise, there's no need to reply to the email I sent you.

Enjoy your day!