<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Dear all,<div><br></div><div>I am writing to ask for your help in providing research projects for next year's 4th and 5th year students. The department has responded wonderfully in the past few years to increasing numbers, as shown in the table below:<br><div><br></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Projects required = nos of students</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> 4</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Year 5</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Year Projects offered</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">2011/12 32 9 48<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">2012/13 51 10 66<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">2013/14 55 24 107<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br></div></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">On these figures, we more than doubled the project availability in 2 years. Thanks to everyone who helped, but especially to the 8 or so staff members who supplied 2/3 of the titles. <span style="font-size: 11pt;">The 77 projects actually completed last year are detailed in the attached spreadsheet.</span></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><font color="#e32400">Next year the predicted student numbers are:</font></div><div><font color="#e32400"><br></font></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><font color="#e32400">2014/15 Up to 83 expected 31 expected</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">which represents an overall increase of </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">41% </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">over last year by my arithmetic.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Since we have some unallocated titles, we do not need to increase availability by quite such a large margin; </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> n</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">early all 5th year students will continue on the same projects. B</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">ut we do need to make some additions to the list for incoming 4th years (up 51% or so). </span><font color="#ff4013" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">As a rough estimate, each academic member of staff needs to suggest <u>one additional</u> project title.</font></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Timothy Briggs and I hope to assemble the project booklet at the beginning of September, for distribution to students in the week before start of term. By that stage we will need complete one-page proposals of new projects on the standard form. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Meanwhile, can I ask you each to consider how you can contribute to next year's project provision, in one of the following ways:</span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">1. Offer a new project title. Deadline end of this month: email to me or Tim.</span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">2. If you have a continuing project, repeat it for a new 4th year student (doubling up across years). Deadline end of August.</span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">3. Double up within 4th year; offer a project to a pair of students. IOP rules now allow this, although we've had similar working arrangements for a couple of years.</span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">4. If you are a post-doc who is accredited for PhD supervision, offer a project as first supervisor. Your slavedriver will be expected to take the role of second supervisor, so ask them first. Deadline end of August.</span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">In summary, growth brings problems. I'm confident that we can solve this one.</span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Have a good summer,</span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Kevin</span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><br></div><div apple-content-edited="true">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Kevin Peter O'Donnell<br>Professor of Semiconductor Spectroscopy<br>SUPA Physics Department<br>Strathclyde University<br>Glasgow G4 0NG<br>Scotland, UK.<br><br><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">email: <a href="mailto:k.p.odonnell@strath.ac.uk">k.p.odonnell@strath.ac.uk</a></span><br>web: <a href="http://ssd.phys.strath.ac.uk/index.php/Main_Page">http://ssd.phys.strath.ac.uk/index.php/Main_Page</a><br>tel: 0141 548 3365/3458/2309<br><br><br></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><span></span></div></div></body></html>