Collaborating on Research with Me

Thanks for thinking about reaching out to me to discuss collaborating! I tremendously enjoy working with people, so I’m always excited to hear from potential new collaborators. Unfortunately, collaborations have not always gone well for me, so here is what I look for in potential collaborators:

Please clearly and succinctly communicate to me your relevant skills and capabilities. A resume can be attached, but I’m looking for 1-3 sentences summarizing what you bring to the table. If neither a description nor a resume is provided, I cannot evaluate whether you might be someone I want to work with. I don’t necessarily reject potential collaborators for lacking credentials so long as the potential collaborator is open about this but explicitly describes what other advantages they have.
Tell me what you are specifically interested in working together on. My projects are almost always structured around a specific research goal, typically in one of three flavors: scientific, mathematical, or engineering. If you can phrase what goals you are interested in working on in terms of these three flavors, that would be very helpful. Telling me that you’ve read my papers is not helpful because (1) others have read my papers and this doesn’t distinguish you, (2) many others probably could have written my papers (being brutually honest about my own non-uniqueness) and (3) my papers can be up to 1.5 years out of date, depending on how reviews went.
The trait that I’ve found to be most important in research (and other areas) is being relentlessly resourceful. Because this trait is not easily evaluated from a resume, I will likely suggest a trial period of working together. I will be more willing to skip a trial period if you show me preliminary evidence of work that you’ve already done.

If this page makes me sound curmudgeonly, I promise I am not like that whatsoever in person! The goal of this papge is to deter unserious inquiries and to make sure that serious inquiries are as efficient as possible. I’m excited to hear from you! Please email me at rylanschaeffer@gmail.com.